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)

These stunning color portraits, produced by the U.S. Office of War Information during World War II depict the role of women in the US war effort. All of the images were shot on 4x5 color transparency film by Howard R. Hollem and Alfred T. Palmer during 1942 and 1943 and were turned over to the Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division in 1944. They are seen here with their original captions.

A protester performs the symbolic death of a student demonstrator during a march near Congress where Chile's President Michelle Bachelet gives her annual address in Valparaiso, Chile, Thursday, May 21, 2015. Demonstrators are protesting the death of two students killed during an education reform march last week in Valparaiso and demanding more involvement in education reform. (Photo by Luis Hidalgo/AP Photo)

A protester holding a torch runs past police (not pictured) trying to stop the protesters from marching in a rally organised by a 30-party alliance led by a hardline faction of former Maoist rebels, who are protesting against the draft of the new constitution, in Kathmandu August 15, 2015. The group says that the draft is not inclusive and does not protect the rights of the marginalised and underprivileged groups in the country. (Photo by Navesh Chitrakar/Reuters)

Omani Tactical & Commando personnel are seen during the month-long GCC joint security exercise “Arabian Gulf Security 1” in Manama, Bahrain November 1, 2016. “Arabian Gulf Security 1” exercises will continue until mid-November with the participation of the UAE, Saudi Arabia, Oman, Qatar and Kuwait. (Photo by Hamad I. Mohammed/Reuters)

A boy carries sugar cane through a farm on the outskirt of Zaria in Nigeria's northern state of Kaduna November 15, 2016. (Photo by Akintunde Akinleye/Reuters)

In this December 19, 2014 photo, a man stands beside his 1957 Chevrolet Bel-Air car in Havana, Cuba. U.S. car sales have been banned in Cuba since 1959. Cubans have been have been forced to patch together Fords, Chevrolets and Chryslers that date back to before Fidel Castro's revolution which can make it appear like the country is stuck in a 1950s time warp. Since the Communist economic system isn't likely to change soon, many of those cars will have to stay on the road for years. (Photo by Desmond Boylan/AP Photo)

People carry bags containing their belongings past a burning residential block, caused by a recent shelling according to locals, on the outskirts of Donetsk, eastern Ukraine February 9, 2015. (Photo by Maxim Shemetov/Reuters)