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)

It’s time to start watching for Comet PANSTARRS, one of two comets to get excited about in 2013. Photo: This image provided by NASA shoaws the comet PANSTARRS as seen from Mount Dale, Western Australia on March 5, 2013. According to NASA on March 10, it will make its closest approach to the sun about 28 million miles (45 million kilometers) away. As it continues its nightly trek across the sky, the comet may get lost in the sun's glare but should return and be visible to the naked eye by March 12. (Photo by AP Photo/NASA)

Lissy Elle is a Canadian photographer who creates mysterious and dreamy images through the use of props and photo manipulation. Full of woods, classic tales references, giant teacups and girls defying gravity, her work is both engaging and disturbing, it transports us to an oniric world, or is it a nightmare?

Wang uses a mobile phone as she take a rest in her room at the accommodation where patients and their family members stay while seeking medical treatments in Beijing, China, June 23, 2016. Wang, who suffers from cervical cancer, came from Inner Mongolia to seek treatment at a specialist hospital in Beijing. (Photo by Kim Kyung-Hoon/Reuters)

A man walks past a neon soaked street scene mural titled “Belfast – Blurry Eyed” by Dan Kitchener, also known as DANK on March 1, 2018 in Belfast, Northern Ireland. (Photo by Charles McQuillan/Getty Images)

A Buddhist monk lights a candle at Wat Phra Dhammakaya during a ceremony on Makha Bucha Day in Pathum Thani province, north of Bangkok February 22, 2016. Makha Bucha Day honours Buddha and his teachings, and falls on the full moon day of the third lunar month. (Photo by Jorge Silva/Reuters)

A Filipino devotee is carried by police officers outside the Quiapo church after she fainted during the Black Nazarene feast day in Manila, Philippines, January 9, 2020. (Photo by Willy Kurniawan/Reuters)

A riot policeman watches as a police vehicle burns in Braamfontein, Johannesburg, South Africa, Tuesday, October 25, 2016. Rioters in South Africa set a police vehicle on fire Tuesday and stoned vehicles near a Johannesburg university that has been the scene of sometimes violent protests by students demanding free education. The violence broke out in streets near the University of the Witwatersrand at around the same time that student protesters met and marched off the campus, South African media reported. (Photo by Yeshiel Panchia/AP Photo)