As the end of the year approaches, there is always a tendency to look back before we start to look forward.
There is no doubt that this year has been tough, with an ongoing global pandemic never far from everybody's thoughts.
However, 2021 has also been a year of renewed optimism. With the recent COP26 summit in the UK, and the plethora of new efficient and environmentally friendly technologies coming to the fore, there is certainly hope that we can act to avert a major climate catastrophe.
From the world's fastest electric vehicle (possibly) to dancing drones, this is November in images.
I spy a superbubble
Hubble Space Telescope image of N44, a complex nebula filled with glowing hydrogen gas, dark lanes of dust, massive stars, and many populations of stars of different ages. One of its most distinctive features, however, is the dark, starry gap called a 'superbubble'. The hole is about 250 light-years wide and its presence is still something of a mystery. N44 spans about 1,000 light-years and is about 170,000 light-years away from Earth. Photo by NASA/ESA/V Ksoll/D Gouliermis/Gladys Kober/Hubble Space Telescope
Finding the lost one
Professor Lee Berger shows a full-scale reproduction of the skull of a hominid named Leti, named after a Setswana word 'letimela' meaning 'the lost one'. The skull was found inside the Rising Star Cave System at the Cradle of Humankind World Heritage Site near Maropeng, South Africa, on 4 November 2021.The latest find adds to the riddle surrounding Homo naledi; a species of Stone Age hominids discovered less than a decade ago in a region called the Cradle of Humankind, named after the stunning fossils unearthed there. Photo by Luca Sola/AFP/Getty Images
Electric Spitfire
Steve Jones, a test pilot for Rolls-Royce, flies one of the world's fastest electric planes, 'Spirit of Innovation' over Boscombe Down, United Kingdom, on 4 November 2021. During recent flights, the plane clocked upa maximum speed of 623km/h, which Rolls-Royce claim makes the plane the world’s fastest all-electric vehicle.Photo by Rolls-Royce
Marching for change
Friday for Future Climate protestors take part in a climate protest as they march though the city centre on 5 November 2021 in Glasgow, United Kingdom. Thousands of people across the world took part in the Global Youth Strike For Climate during day six of the COP26 United Nations Climate Change Conference.Photo by Ewan Bootman/NurPhoto/Shutterstock
Snow steps
This aerial photo taken on 7 November 2021 shows terraced fields after a snowfall in Handan, in China's northern Hebei province. Photo by AFP/Getty Images
Robots (kind of) in disguise
Workers make a replica of a robot from used motorcycle materials that are made into Robots at Er Studio Art, Bantul, Yogyakarta, Indonesia, on 8 November 2021. The COVID-19 pandemic marked the beginning of innovation for Er Studio Art. Initially engaged in stage decoration and painting, now it has expanded to making robotic replicas. Photo by Dasril Roszandi/Anadolu Agency/Getty Images
Blue waters
This image was taken from the International Space Station on the 8 November 2021, and shows the beautiful blue-green waters around the Bahamas. Photo by NASA
Back down to Earth
European Space Agency astronaut Thomas Pesquet gives a press statement at the Cologne Bonn Airport in Cologne, western Germany, on 9 November 2021, upon arrival following the landing of the SpaceX capsule overnight off the coast of Florida. Pesquet, of France, and three other astronauts had spent six months on the International Space Station. Photo by Bernd Lauter/AFP/Getty Images
Zero emission life-saver
A hydrogen powered zero emission ambulance is displayed on 10 November 2021 in Glasgow, Scotland, United Kingdom. Day eleven of the COP26 summit in Glasgow focused on driving the global transition to zero-emission transport. This was the 26th 'Conference of the Parties' and represented a gathering of all the countries signed on to the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change and the Paris Climate Agreement. The aim of COP26 was to commit countries to net-zero carbon emissions by 2050. Photo by Ian Forsyth/Getty Images
A drone photo shows an aerial view of an island on Keban Dam Lake, in the Pertek district of Tunceli, Turkey on 11 November 2021. Trees have been planted here to try to reduce drought and erosion. Photo by Sidar Can Eren/Anadolu Agency/Getty Images
Cold as ice
Hikers visit an ice cave formed at the end section of the Zinal glacier, above the alpine village of Zinal, Switzerland, 13 November 2021. Over the last 60 years the overall glacier volume in Switzerland has shrunk by almost 50 per cent, losing between 2 per cent and 3 per cent volume per year over the last four years according to the GLAMOS (Glacier Monitoring in Switzerland) project.Photo by Valentin Flauraud/EPA-EFE/Shutterstock
Hide and seek
A worker in Antalya, Turkey is seen taking a rest in a recycling plant,on 14 November 2021.Thecompany works to a 'zero waste' plan, and turns wastes such as plastic and packaging into raw materials. This process then can transform this material into a new product. Photo by Mustafa Ciftci/Anadolu Agency/Getty Images
A wee bit crabby?
An aerial photo taken on 16 November 2021 shows colourful metasequoia trees harvesting at a crab breeding base in Suqian City, Jiangsu Province, China. Photo by Zhang Lianhua/Costfoto/Barcroft Media/Getty Images
Cleaning spray
An anti-smog gun spraying water to settle dust and other particles, reducing air pollution at Mathura Road near Pragati Maidan construction site on 16 November 2021 in New Delhi, India. Photo by Mohd Zakir/Hindustan Times/Getty Images
Road to ruin
Damage caused by heavy rains and mudslides earlier in the week is pictured along the Coquihalla Highway near Hope, B.C., Canada. Thursday, November 18, 2021. Photo by Canadian Press/Shutterstock
Cave museum
Participants of ESA’s Pangaea course pictured on the 19 November 2021, visiting the Corona lave tube in Lanzarote, Spain.ESA astronaut Andreas Mogensen, ESA engineer Robin Eccleston and NASA astronaut Kathleen Rubins are this year’s studentslearning from geologists right here on Earth how to best explore the Moon and Mars right here on Earth. Lanzarote’s volcanic landscapes are exceptionally well-preserved, and the long history of geological activity make it a unique open-air museum. Here, basaltic lava flows resemble vast plains on the lunar maria and volcanoes are similar to those in some regions of Mars. Photo by A Romeo/ESA
An ice day for a swim
This aerial photo taken on 22 November 2021 shows a winter swimming enthusiast swimming in a partly frozen lake during snowfall at a park in Shenyang, in northeastern China's Liaoning province. Photo by STR/AFP/Getty Images
Wildlife crossing
An aerial view of Istanbul-Izmir Highway and an ecological overpass between Istanbul and Izmir, on 22 November 2021, in Bursa, Turkey. The highway links six provinces and designed to not to intervene in wildlife with two ecological overpasses so that wild animals could continue their lives without being interrupted. Photo by Ali Atmaca/Anadolu Agency/Getty Images
It's all relative
A picture taken on 22 November 2021 shows pages of one of the preparatory manuscript to the theory of General Relativity of Albert Einstein, during their presentation a day before being auctioned at Christie's auction house in Paris, France. Photo by Alain Jocard/ AFP/Getty Images
Copy cat shuttle
A mock-up of the Buran Soviet/Russian reusable space shuttle is shown on display at the Baikonur Cosmodrome History Museum, 23 November 2021. Buran was launched on the Energia rocket carrier on 15 November 1988, orbited the around Earth twice and landed at the Yubileiny airfield at Baikonur Cosmodrome, Kazakhstan. The spacecraft that actually flew to space was destroyed in a hangar roof collapse in 2002. Photo by Sergei Savostyanov/TASS/Getty Images
Manhattanhenge
The sun rises above 42nd Street during 'Manhattanhenge' in New York, New York photographed from Weehawken, New Jersey on 24 November 2021. This is the phenomenon during which the setting Sun or the rising Sun is aligned with the east-west streets of the main street grid of Manhattan, New York City, USA. Photo by Yuki Iwamura/AFP/Getty Images
Dancing drones
Musicians play as a squad of drones fly synchronised with the music during a drone show at Medellin's Tech Fest in Colombia on 26 November 2021. Photo by Joaquin Sarmiento/AFP/Getty Images
Storm Arwen pounds the UK
Storm Arwen batters the Northeast coast, causing big waves to crash against the Heugh breakwater in Hartlepool, County Durham, United Kingdom on Saturday 27th November 2021.Photo by MI News/NurPhoto/Shutterstock
James Cutmore is the picture editor of BBC Science Focus Magazine. He has worked on the magazine and website for over a decade, telling compelling science stories through the use of striking imagery. He holds a degree in Fine Art, and has been nominated for the British Society of Magazine Editors Talent Awards, being highly commended in 2020. His main areas of interest include photography that highlights positive technology and the natural world. For many years he was a judge for the Wellcome Trust's image competition, as well as judging for the Royal Photographic Society.
TOPSHOT - The sun rises above 42nd Street during a reverse 'Manhattanhenge' in New York, New York photographed from Weehawken, New Jersey on November 24, 2021. - 'Manhattanhenge' is a phenomenon during which the setting sun or the rising sun is aligned with the eastwest streets of the main street grid of Manhattan, New York City. (Photo by Yuki IWAMURA / AFP) (Photo by YUKI IWAMURA/AFP via Getty Images)
