The best science and technology pictures of the week

The most amazing pictures from the last seven days – including a home-built robot, a return to Earth for intrepid astronauts and a very hungry bear cub.

More stunning image galleries:

Tiny robots, printable guns and a sunken German bomber

Dramatic storms, face transplants and a pensive gorilla

Space, bionic limbs and robot protests

Rubber wastelands, a trip to a taxidermist and hurricane testing labs

Flu scares, robot surgery and the untouched planet

Cars in flight, active volcanoes and an enormous tarantula

Giant eggs, natural born killers and a musical use for gun parts

The universe’s earliest light, zero gravity and a macaque with hayfever

Comets, the world’s largest astronomical project and a lagoon of death

Biblical swarms, reaching out into space, and jumping rats

Deep sea beauty, giant drilling machines and hypnotic space telescopes

Stunning views of Earth and up close and personal with a human parasite

Russian meteor, extreme weather and a turtle with artificial fins

Cosmic storms, the first bionic man and how to clean a oil-covered bird

Birth of stars, life at sub-zero temperatures and micro-living in the city

Pollution from space, active volcanoes and a robot restaurant

Amazing Lego sculptures, freakish weather… and Big Bird

Gruesome tools, environmental disasters and intimate views from space.

Christmas treats and the end of the world

Bathing snow monkeys, a tweeting pope and elephant dung coffee.

Architectural giants and a new way of seeing the Moon

Red pandas, Saturn and Nature’s unstoppable forces

The world's largest bloom, the world's largest aquarium and the world's fastest sailing boat

Venice under water, a total eclipse and a pedestrian-avoiding car

Space shuttle, Baumgartner and Hurricane Sandy

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