Beautiful, strange and occasionally alarming pictures from the shortlist for this year’s Wellcome image awards – which celebrate the very best in science photography and imaging – from an x-ray of a bat to a micrograph of a kidney stone. The exhibition opens on 12 March at three science centres and the Museum of Science and Industry in Manchester. Photo: Scanning electron micrograph (SEM) of an Arabidopsis thaliana flower, also commonly known as thale cress. Some of the anthers are open, revealing pollen grains ready for dispersal. Arabidopsis was the first plant to have its entire genome sequenced and is widely used as a model organism in molecular and plant biology. Horizontal width of image is 1200 microns. Magnification 100x. (Photo by Stefan Eberhard/Wellcome Images)

Lindsay Heimbach goes airborne while sledding down a hill on Mt. Lemmon December 27, 2008. (Photo by James Gregg/Arizona Daily Star)

Australian singer/songwriter Delta Goodrem comes face-to-face for the first time with a wax figure of herself at Madame Tussauds in Sydney on April 11, 2012. Madame Tussauds, featuring wax doppelgangers of Dannii Minogue, Brad Pitt, Angelina Jolie, Johnny Depp and Lady Gaga, was officially open on April 16. (Photo by Ryan Pierse)

A fan lies passed out on the first day of the Wacken Open Air heavy metal music fest on August 4, 2011 in Wacken, Germany. Approximately 75,000 heavy metal fans from all over the world have descended on the north German village of 1,800 residents for the annual three-day fest. (Photo by Sean Gallup/Getty Images)

Members of the Gremlins Carnival Club, open the doors to their workshop to unveil for the first time their cart, Jungle Drums, which is their entry to this year's Bridgwater Carnival, on November 4, 2011 in Bridgwater, England. (Photo by Matt Cardy/Getty Images)