A boy plays at a flooded street in front of a passing bus as tropical storm Fung-Wong battered the Philippine capital Manila September 19, 2014. Heavy rain in the Philippine capital, Manila, caused flooding in many areas on Friday, shutting schools, government offices and financial markets as a tropical storm made landfall to the north. Thousands of residents in low-lying areas were moved to higher ground, officials said, as flood waters rose quickly after the equivalent of half a month's usual rain fell in six hours. (Photo by Erik De Castro/Reuters)

People stand in queue keeping social distance beside a Covid-19 awareness scarecrows placed by Chennai municipality at a market during a government-imposed nationwide lockdown as a preventive measure against the COVID-19 coronavirus, in Chennai on April 11, 2020. (Photo by Arun Sankar/AFP Photo)

Looters scramble in Philipsburg, St. Maarten, Sunday September 10, 1995 for goods in the Ram's department store, which contained mostly food and liquor. No attempts are currently being made by Dutch troops on the island to stop the looting, since few relief supplies have arrived in St. Maarten, which was ravaged on Tuesday by Hurricane Luis. (Photo by John McConnico/AP Photo)

Students perform a traditional dance during the Onam festival celebrations in Chennai on August 25, 2023. (Photo by R. Satish Babu/AFP Photo)

Women wait for customers at the fish harbour in Kasimedu Fish market, Chennai, India, on June 26, 2024. (Photo by Riya Mariyam R./Reuters)

A helicopter flies close to a volcanic eruption which has begun in Fagradalsfjall near the capital Reykjavik on March 20, 2021 in Fagradalsfjall, Iceland. On Friday the Icelandic meteorological office announced a volcano, referring to a mountain located south-west of the Capital Reykjavik has erupted after thousands of small earthquakes in the area over the recent weeks. A no-fly zone has been established in the area. (Photo by Vilhelm Gunnarsson/Getty Images)

Soap Bubble Structures by Kym Cox. Bubbles optimise space and minimise their surface area for a given volume of air. This phenomenon makes them a useful tool in many areas of research, in particular, materials science and “packing” – how things fit together. Bubble walls drain under gravity, thin at the top, thick at the bottom, which interferes with travelling lightwaves to create bands of colour. Black spots show the wall is too thin for interference colours, indicating the bubble is about to burst. (Photo by Kym Cox/2019 Science Photographer of the Year/RPS)