Thai school girls pose for photographs with pythons during the 2022 Pet Expo Championship in Bangkok on September 8, 2022. (Photo by Manan Vatsyayana/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)

These black-and-white photos are taken from the new book “Armoured Warfare in the First World War 1916 – 1918” by Anthony Tucker-Jones and published by Pen & Sword Military. Here: British troops hitch a ride on a Mark IV after the massed tank fleet spearheading attack at Cambrai on November 20, 1917. (Photo by Anthony Tucker-Jones/Mediadrumworld.com)

Lebanese women smoke nargileh (water pipe) and watch a streaming broadcast of the FIFA World Cup 2022 group G soccer match between Brazil and Switzerland, at a café-restaurant in the area of Sabtiyeh, north of Beirut, on November 28, 2022. Lebanon being hit hard by the economic crisis, the country did not obtain the rights to broadcast the 2022 World Cup this year, depriving Lebanese fans of the World Cup. (Photo by Joseph Eid/AFP Photo)

Actor Jackie Chan poses with student performers after participating in a leg of the Beijing 2022 Winter Olympics Torch Relay at the Badaling Great Wall on February 3, 2022 outside Beijing, China. (Photo by Kevin Frayer/Getty Images)

British model Jourdan Dunn and London-based hair stylist Issac Poleon attend an event to celebrate the Maximilian Autumn/Winter 2022 collection in The Green Room at The Londoner Hotel on February 20, 2022 in London, England. (Photo by David M. Benett/Dave Benett/Getty Images for The Londoner Hotel)

A child enjoys a bath in a horse feeding tub near Settle, North Yorkshire, on Tuesday, May 31, 2022, as he and his family, from Accrington, Lancashire, head to Appleby, Cumbria, for the world-famous Appleby Horse Fair, which starts a week on Thursday, 9 June 2022. (Photo by Lorne Campbell/Guzelian)

Jenn Brown of CFX (Composite Effects) adjusts a silicon mask based on Pinhead from the movie franchise “Hellraiser” in their stall during Preview Night at the 2022 Comic-Con International at the San Diego Convention Center, Wednesday, July 20, 2022, in San Diego. (Photo by Chris Pizzello/AP Photo)