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)

Esther Abad free diving in Cenote Chukum, in the Yucatan peninsula in Mexico on June 13, 2022. (Photo by Wojciech Dopierala/Mercury Press)

People watch the Macy's Fourth of July fireworks at the Edge at Hudson Yards on Thursday, July 4, 2024, in New York. (Photo by Yuki Iwamura/AP Photo)

Ramoncito Campo kisses his wife Hernelie Ruazol Campo on a flooded street during a southwest monsoon that battered Manila August 8, 2012. The newly-wed couple pushed through with their scheduled wedding despite severe flooding that inundated wide areas of the capital and nearby nine provinces. (Photo by Reuters/Courtesy of Ramoncito Campo)

Revellers at the Chin Chin music festival in Amsterdam, Netherlands on July 3, 2021. The festival season has started with a QR code, one can enter, corona proof or vaccination proof in the corona check app. (Photo by Robin Utrecht/Rex Features/Shutterstock)

In this October 21, 2015, file photo, a young man rides a hoverboard along a Manhattan street toward the Empire State Building in New York. More than 500,000 hoverboards are being recalled after reports that they can burst into flames. The Consumer Product Safety Commission said Wednesday, July 6, 2016, it has received 99 reports of battery packs in the two-wheel motorized scooters catching fire or exploding that causing burns or property damage. The recalled hoverboards were made by eight companies. (Photo by Kathy Willens/AP Photo)

The Northern Lights glow green in a spectacular light show above a field of trees frozen solid with snow. (Photo by Jaak Sarv/Solent News & Photo Agency)

Taylor Swift, right, and Brittany Mahomes react during the third quarter of an NFL AFC division playoff football game between the Buffalo Bills and the Kansas City Chiefs, Sunday, January 21, 2024, in Orchard Park, N.Y. (Photo by Frank Franklin II/AP Photo)