General view at the Red Bull Music Academy x Mangrove float at Notting Hill Carnival on August 28, 2017 in London, England. The Notting Hill Carnival has taken place since 1966 and now has an attendance of over two million people. (Photo by Tristan Fewings/Getty Images for RedBull)

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)

South Korean prostitutes hide their identities as they participate in a rally on September 22, 2005 in Seoul, South Korea. Prostitutes rallied against government law aimed at the s*x industry. (Photo by Chung Sung-Jun/Getty Images)

Jozsef Tari has been collecting miniature books since 1972, and is now the proud owner of over 4,500 literary works, including the world’s smallest book (2.9 x 3.2 mm).

Brendan Fitzpatrick is a commercial photographer specialising in advertising and lifestyle photography. He also creates unique X-ray images marketed under the banner Invisible Light. Brendan is based in Sydney, Australia. (Photo by Brendan Fitzpatrick)

A tear rolls down the cheek of Karima el-Mahroug, also known as Ruby, a Moroccan woman at the center of ex-Premier Silvio Berlusconi's s*x-for-hire trial, as she reads a statement to reporters during a protest outside the court house, in Milan, Italy, Thursday, April 4, 2013. The Moroccan woman at the center of ex-Premier Silvio Berlusconi's s*x-for-hire trial has denounced what she says is psychological warfare being waged against her by Italian prosecutors. Ruby, read out a lengthy statement Thursday to a gaggle of reporters in front of Milan's courthouse denying she was a prostitute and insisting that prosecutors hear her side of the story. (Photo by Luca Bruno/AP Photo)

Women kiss each other as people celebrate outside the Stonewall Inn in the Greenwich Village neighborhood of New York June 26, 2015. The Supreme Court ruled on Friday that the U.S. Constitution provides same-s*x couples the right to marry, handing a historic triumph to the American gay rights movement. (Photo by Eduardo Munoz/Reuters)