A fuzzy caterpillar on a basil plant in west Bengal, India on December 25, 2023. The caterpillar’s defence system is its hair, which has microscopic barbs that break off easily in the skin of would-be predators. (Photo by Soumyabrata Roy/NurPhoto/Rex Features/Shutterstock)

Keen diver Yusuke Fukami fulfilled a personal dream by snapping a cartoon-like Costasiella sea slug while in Bali in the last decade of December 2024. (Photo by Yusuke Fukami/South West News Service)

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)

Pilots of the Royal Saudi Air Force Hawks aerobatic team perform during a show in Kuwait City on February 26, 2023 as the Gulf state marks its 62nd Independence Day and 32nd anniversary of the end of the Gulf war with the liberation of Kuwait from Iraqi occupation. (Photo by Yasser Al-Zayyat/AFP Photo)

Michael Pankratz’s intriguing works focus specifically on the feet of tarantulas – an appendage that many have perhaps never focused on. The extreme close-ups of tarantulas’ “paws” show fine, colourful hairs, and sharp claws. Here: Brachypelma albopilosum, foot detail. (Photo by Michael Pankratz/Caters News Agency)

An employee at Christie's auction house examines a complete sub-fossilised elephant bird egg on March 27, 2013 in London, England. The elephant bird egg is expected to fetch 30,000 GBP when it features in Christie's “Travel, Science and Natural History” sale, which is to be held on April 24, 2013 in London. (Photo by Oli Scarff)

A gallery assistant holds a rare 14th century time-telling device device in Bonhams auction house on December 9, 2011 in London, England. The instrument, which dates from 1396 and was discovered in a shed in Queensland, Australia, is due to be auctioned on December 13, 2011 and is expected to fetch 200,000 GBP. (Photo by Oli Scarff/Getty Images)

This November 8, 2019, photo provided by John Guillote shows a view from the main lab of the Sikuliaq in the Chukchi Sea. University of Washington scientists onboard the research vessel are studying the changes and how less sea ice will affect coastlines, which already are vulnerable to erosion because increased waves delivered by storms. More erosion would increase the chance of winter flooding in villages and danger to hunters in small boats. (Photo by John Guillote via AP Photo)