These beautiful shots may look like works of modern art – but they are actually close-ups of chemical reactions. The works were snapped with the help of a group of scientists from the University of Science and Technology of China (USTC) in Anhui, China. Here: Zinc reacting with lead nitrate in a soft gel to form lead crystals. (Photo by Yan Liang/Caters News)

For more than 2,000 years, women from the Baiga tribe in the highland district of Dindori, in central India’s Madhya Pradesh state, have been tattooed. Sumintra, 25, from Bona village, has the markings across her forehead, legs and arms. The women who work as tattoo artists are knowledgable about the different types of designs and pigments preferred by various tribes, and their meanings are passed to them by their mothers. The tattooing ‘season’ begins with the approach of winter. (Photo by Ronny Sen/WaterAid/The Guardian)

Andrew Newey, an award-winning UK-based travel photographer, has captured gripping photographs of central Nepalese Gurung tribe members engaged in a dangerous and ancient tradition – honey hunting.

There is an endless bounty of eye-catching gemstones throughout the world and this spectacular boulder opal is one unique beauty that looks like a shimmering crystal encased in a tree fossil. Its opalescent sheen seeps through the cracks of the seemingly wooden rings in lustrous hues of emerald green and aqua blue. Like something out of a fairy tale, the triangular piece radiates through an organic pattern mimicking the growth rings of tree.

Commuters watch after their train was blocked by leftist activists at a railway station during a nationwide general strike against the policies of the central government in Kolkata on March 28, 2022. (Photo by Dibyangshu Sarkar/AFP Photo)

Thousands of bright yellow silkworm cocoons are dried in huge clay bowls in the village of Hong Ly, northern Vietnam in July 2022. Silk fibres are produced by silkworms when they spin themselves into a cocoon on their journey to becoming a silkmoth. The ultra-soft fibres are harvested from the cocoon in their raw state by being boiled in hot water. (Photo by Prabu Mohan/Solent News)

A police officer stands guard out of a venue where farmer leaders meet with government representatives in New Delhi, India, December 5, 2020. (Photo by Adnan Abidi/Reuters)

A Naga Sadhu or Hindu holy man adjusts the beads around his neck ahead of the first Shahi Snan at “Kumbh Mela” or the Pitcher Festival, in Haridwar, India, March 10, 2021. (Photo by Anushree Fadnavis/Reuters)