A woman waters the plants outside her house in an alley at a slum in Mumbai October 28, 2014. (Photo by Danish Siddiqui/Reuters)

Sea lion “Jay” paints a Chinese character reading “the Serpent” at the Hakkeijima Sea Paradise aquarium in Yokohama, suburban Tokyo on January 3, 2013. The event, marking the forthcoming Chinese lunar calender year of the snake was held as part of a New Year's attraction. (Photo by Kazuhiro Nogi/AFP Photo)

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)

April Haze, a San Jose-based stripper, teaches a pole dance class to her students at Revel Room Studios in Milpitas, California, April 15, 2021. As some of the United States' estimated 3,821 strip clubs start to open up again, women who work as strippers are confronting a transformed industry. Revenue in the industry is estimated to have decreased 17.4% in 2020 and is forecast to fall another 1.5% this year, according to research by IBISWorld. (Photo by Brittany Hosea-Small/Reuters)

Medical students play with coloured powder as they participate in Holi celebrations, the Hindu spring festival of colours, inside Moti Lal Nehru Medical College campus in Allahabad on March 16, 2022. (Photo by Sanjay Kanojia/AFP Photo)

A recently hatched baby Egret bird seen in a nest at the Gatorland Bird Rookery in Kissimmee, Florida on March 17, 2022. Gatorland is known as The Alligator Capital of the World and has a 10 acre natural bird rookery. (Photo by Ronen Tivony/SOPA Images/Rex Features/Shutterstock)

American rapper Megan Thee Stallion performs during the 2022 Billboard Music Awards at MGM Grand Garden Arena in Las Vegas, Nevada, U.S. May 15, 2022. (Photo by Mario Anzuoni/Reuters)

Bullet the bulldog skateboards in a seafront area in the city of Vladivostok, on Russia's Pacific coast on August 9, 2021. The 6-year-old dog learnt how to skateboard two years ago thanks to his owner, Sergei Shukshuyev. (Photo by Yuri Smityuk/TASS)