Cyclists compete during the UCI BMX World Championships Elite Women's Moto Race on May 29, 2016 in Medellin, Antioquia department, Colombia. (Photo by Raul Arboleda/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)

“Horst Faas (28 April 1933 – 10 May 2012) was a German photo-journalist and two-time Pulitzer Prize winner. He is best-known for his images of the Vietnam War”. – Wikipedia

Photo: A U.S. crewman runs from a crashed CH-21 Shawnee troop helicopter near the village of Ca Mau in the southern tip of South Vietnam, December 11, 1962. Two helicopters crashed without serious injuries during a government raid on the Viet Cong-infiltrated area. Both helicopters were destroyed to keep them out of enemy hands. (Photo by AP Photo/Horst Faas)

Aisha, 15, (L) (who asked to withhold her last name), a Syrian refugee from Raqqa, waits with a fellow refugee while harvesting cannabis in the Bekaa valley, Lebanon October 19, 2015. Syrian refugees work to harvest and process spiky-leafed cannabis plants in neighbouring Lebanon’s Bekaa Valley. Often farmers of cotton and wheat back home in Raqqa province – now the de facto capital of Islamic State – the conflict in Syria drove them to seek safety in a region where Syrian migrant workers used to spend a few months a year before returning home. (Photo by Alia Haju/Reuters)

Joseph Fons holding a Pride Flag, runs in front of the U.S. Supreme Court building after the court ruled that a federal law banning workplace discrimination also covers sexual orientation, in Washington, D.C., U.S., June 15, 2020. (Photo by Tom Brenner/Reuters)

Afghan women attend a rally to support Afghan security forces and demand peace in the country in Herat, Afghanistan, 08 February 2021. Hamdullah Mohib, Afghanistan's National Security Advisor told a press conference in Kabul on 06 February, the Afghan government was ready for war after successive setbacks in recent weeks to peace talks with the Taliban, who have refused to return to discussions that began in September in Doha. (Photo by Jalil Rezayee/EPA/EFE)

A girl practices martial arts during a training at a school in Syrian opposition-held village of al-Jeineh, Syria on April 11, 2021. (Photo by Khalil Ashawi/Reuters)

With the help of some fake teeth and multiple exposures, New York AP photographer Eddie Adams' daughter Susan is transformed into a little ghoul on Halloween night, October 31, 1966. (Photo by Eddie Adams/AP Photo)