Nobel Prize-winning physicist Charles Townes was single-minded about a lot of things, colleagues say. And also a very nice guy. Julian Wasser/The LIFE Images Collection/Getty hide caption

Leah Bannon (sitting) works on her laptop at 18F, a GSA project that aims to make government websites more user friendly and change the way government buys IT systems. Emily Jan/NPR hide caption

Everybody can play the kazoo, practically no skill required — but only two places in the U.S. make them. Kazoobie Kazoos hide caption

A woman sits inside a bomb shelter in Donetsk on Wednesday. Some local residents have lived in bomb shelters and basements for more than a month, looking for cover from artillery strikes. Alexander Ermochenko/Xinhua/Landov hide caption

A couple of male, genetically modified Aedes aegypti mosquitoes take flight. Dr Derric Nimmo/Oxitec hide caption

Tankers are berthed beside the Fawley oil refinery on Jan. 7, in Southampton, England. With low oil prices, some traders are buying oil and storing it in tankers, hoping the price will rise soon so they can sell it at a profit. Matt Cardy/Getty Images hide caption

Laura Ingalls Wilder entertained generations of children with her Little House series, which was loosely based on her family's pioneering life. Her memoir, Pioneer Girl, was published in 2014. South Dakota State Historical Society hide caption

Emily Neblett, a patient at the Monroe Carell Jr. Children's Hospital in Nashville, Tenn., demonstrates circuit pieces from the mobile maker space that are connected by magnets. Noah Nelson/Youth Radio hide caption

Some fake Apple stores like this one in Kunming, in China's southwestern Yunnan province, were so authentic-looking that even some of their employees didn't know they were fake. Stephen Shaver/UPI/Landov hide caption