Nopparat (R), a 24-year-old transgender, and a Buddhist monk (L) wait to speak to officers during an army draft held at a school in Bang Na in Bangkok April 3, 2015. Thai men over 21 must serve in the army. Those who volunteer serve six months, but others choose the annual lottery, which goes on for 10 days in recruitment centres around Thailand. Only those not considered physically capable of service, the mentally ill and those who have significantly altered their physical appearance, such as transgenders, are exempt. Picture taken April 3, 2015. (Photo by Athit Perawongmetha/Reuters)

Some Iraqi candidates for Miss Iraq beauty contest pose in front of the Ishtar Gate at the ancient archaeological site of Babylon, outside the modern city of Hilla, south of the capital Baghdad on December 17, 2015. The beauty contest, which is the first one in more than 40 years, aims to boost tourism in the city and will take place on December 19, 2015. (Photo by Ahmad Al-Rubaye/AFP Photo)

Young Ian Archibald ponders the consequences of a complex critical study of beauty contestants during the Miss TV Times finals in London. (Photo by Central Press/Getty Images). 30 July 1971

This strange coral-looking specimen is actually a mushroom. The photo, “Beautiful Destroyer”, was taken in the Panamanian tropical rainforest where the mushroom produces nitrogen, an element vital to soil health. (Photo by Sarah A. Batterman)

If you’ve had the unique privilege of witnessing bioluminescent plankton while diving at night, you know firsthand how beautiful the underwater light show can be. For those of us who haven’t experienced it, this unique phenomenon. So what makes this beautiful show possible? In a recent post at online scuba site AquaViews they share some insight we thought you all would find interesting.

Sabine Pearlman‘s photographs find beauty in the destructive engineering of ammunition with this series of cross-sections of bullets cartridges from a Swiss bunker. They reveal the complexity inside each case. This series, which consists of 900 specimens, was photographed inside a WWII bunker in Switzerland. Pearlman says that she is intrigued by the beautiful complexity of the ammo set against its destructive purpose, at once showing off humanity’s ability to create and destroy.

First place, The Beauty of Plants. “There are many stages of lotus growth on display at the Aquatic Gardens, but to come across twotwisted dancing stems of nelumbo nucifera was unexpected and quite magical”. (Photo by Kathleen Furey/The Guardian)

A park worker holds a monitor lizard at Lumpini park in Bangkok, Thailand, September 20, 2016. More than 400 of the Monitor lizards in the park will be caught by Thai authorities to relocate the reptile to a wildlife breeding center in the effort to control the creature population in the public park after the monitor lizard disturbing and causing several minor accident of people who jogging and cycling at the Lumpini Park. (Photo by Athit Perawongmetha/Reuters)