In a north London hospital, scientists are growing noses, ears and blood vessels in the laboratory in a bold attempt to make body parts using stem cells. It is among several labs around the world, including in the U.S., that are working on the futuristic idea of growing custom-made organs in the lab. (Photo by Matt Dunham/AP Photo)

Six Flags New Orleans, also abbreviated to SFNO, is an abandoned theme park in New Orleans, Louisiana, that has been closed since just before Hurricane Katrina struck in August 2005 and is currently owned by the city of New Orleans. Six Flags had previously owned the park since March 2002, but after assessing the devastation caused by Hurricane Katrina and the related exorbitant expenses of repairing the damage, sought to terminate their 75-year lease with the city, beginning in July 2006 and finally succeeding in September 2009. The park is located in Eastern New Orleans, in the Ninth Ward of the city, off Interstate 10. Despite various announced plans to redevelop the site, as of 2014, it is still an abandoned amusement park in extremely poor condition. It is a well-known urban exploration destination.

A forest near Chatillion, a small village in Belgium, used to be home to a vintage car graveyard. This “car graveyard” has since been cleaned up, but photographer Theo van Vliet had the chance to explore the forest and photograph the cars beforehand. (Photo by Theo van Vliet)

In this Wednesday, December 2, 2015 photo, Dr. Gal Kelmer, head of the department of large animals, unties a horse after its operation at the University's Koret School of Veterinary Medicine in Rishon Lezion, Israel. “Horses have an instinctive response of flight from danger”, Kelmer said. “The minute they wake up they start trying to stand and run, even if they don't have control of their limbs. So then they fall”. (Photo by Oded Balilty/AP Photo)

Two of 20 skulls to be taken possession of by a delegation from Namibia stand on display at a ceremony at Charite hospital on September 30, 2011 in Berlin, Germany. The skulls are from Herero and Nama tribespeople taken by German colonial forces between 1904 and 1908, when the Germans violently suppressed an uprising in what was then German Southwest Africa, which is today's Namibia, and in the process killed tens of thousand of Herero and Nama. German scientists at the time took the skulls back to Berlin to demonstrate the racial superiority of Europeans over black Africans. Many Namibians demand a formal apology from the German government. (Photo by Sean Gallup/Getty Images)

Patients from the Larco Herrera Psychiatric Hospital wear costumes in the likeness of the first governor and founder of the Inca civilization, Manco Capac, right, and his wife Mama Ocllo, during the hospital's Independence Day parade in Lima, Peru, Wednesday, July 22, 2015. The parade is held on the hospital's campus every year ahead of the Andean nation's official Independence Day celebrations on July 28. (Photo by Martin Mejia/AP Photo)

Grand banqueting halls, opulent lobbies and vast ballrooms; you could easily be forgiven for thinking this was a collection of photographs was documenting some of Europe’s grandest hotels. However, a closer look will reveal the majestic rooms to be engulfed in swathes of dust and moss; hotels that once hosted royals and high society abandoned to the elements. This is the latest result of urban exploration photography, going beyond “no entry” signs to capture images of dilapidated buildings across Europe. IT worker Thomas Windisch, from Graz in Austria, indulged his passion for photography by traveling across the continent, visiting over 100 abandoned hotels along the way. Here: inside a hotel in Austria. (Photo by Thomas Windisch/Caters News)

Plants grow on houses in the abandoned fishing village of Houtouwan on the island of Shengshan July 26, 2015. Just a handful of people still live in a village on Shengshan Island east of Shanghai that was once home to more than 2,000 fishermen. Every day hundreds of tourists visit Houtouwan, making their way on narrow footpaths past tumbledown houses overtaken by vegetation. The remote village, on one of more than 400 islands in the Shengsi archipelago, was abandoned in the early 1990s as first wealthy residents then others moved away, aiming to leave problems with education and food delivery behind them. (Photo by Damir Sagolj/Reuters)