A devotee dressed as a Roman soldier whips a penitent playing the role of one of two thieves sentenced to be crucified alongside Jesus Christ, during the Via Crucis or Way of the Cross reenactment in the Petare neighborhood of Caracas, Venezuela, Friday, April 15, 2022. Holy Week commemorates the last week of the earthly life of Jesus Christ culminating in his crucifixion on Good Friday and his resurrection on Easter Sunday. (Photo by Matias Delacroix/AP Photo)

Children eat watermelons to meet the “beginning of autumn” at a kindergarten in Handan, China on August 7, 2015. Chinese tradition to eat watermelons or peaches before that day symbolises “biting away summer”. The solar term ‘beginning of autumn’ falls on 8 August this year. (Photo by Xinhua/REX Shutterstock)

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)

British holidaymaker Sean Chinn captures a crocodile on camera during a dive at the Jardines de la Reina marine park in Caribbean Sea, Cuba. (Photo by Sean Chinn/Caters News Agency)

Wigan Town center came alive with Hundreds of Revellers dressing up in fancy dress on December 26, 2018. Revellers in fancy dress braved the cold weather in Wigan, a town in Greater Manchester, England for the town's strangest holiday tradition – the Boxing Day dress up. (Photo by Dave Nelson/The Sun)

Girls in red neckerchiefs dance on Red Square, with the GUM, the State Department Store and the Historical Museum in the background, during a ceremony to celebrate joining the Pioneers organization and 100th anniversary of the All-Union Pioneer Organization, in Moscow, Russia, Sunday, May 22, 2022. Pro-Communist Russians are trying to preserve the Young Pioneers, which used to be the Communist league for pre-teens in the Soviet Union. (Photo by AP Photo/Stringer)

A picture taken on June 3, 2022 shows a unique albinos Galapagos giant tortoise baby, born on May 1, at the Tropicarium of Servion, western Switzerland. Albinos Galapagos tortoises have never been observed in captivity or in the nature. The Galapagos giant tortoises are strictly protected and are among the most endangered species among CITES-listed animals. (Photo by Fabrice Coffrini/AFP Photo)

A day-old lamb exploring new surroundings on the vernal equinox, considered the first day of spring, on March 20, 2019 at Coombes Farm in Lancing, England. (Photo by Andrew Hasson/Getty Images)