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)

Miss Universe candidate Rebecca Kathleen Rath from Belize walks on stage in her national costume during the Miss Universe preliminary show at the Mall of Asia Arena in Pasay City, south of Manila, Philippines 26 January 2017. (Photo by Rolex Dela Pena/EPA)

A police officer stands at a police cordon near the scene of a terror attack in London, U.K., on Sunday, June 4, 2017. A van swerved into Saturday-night crowds on London Bridge, before three men got out and went on a stabbing rampage through nearby bars. (Photo by Luke MacGregor/Bloomberg)

The sun begins to set over this rusty beachside mansion that has been left abandoned for more than 25 years in Thailand, June 2017. A deserted beachside mansion in southern Thailand has retained its beauty – despite no one living there for more than 25 years. In June this year abandoned photographer, Dax Ward, ventured to the Prachuap Khiri-Khan Province to capture the haunting attraction on camera. (Photo by Dax Ward/Barcroft Images)

A boy dressed as Lord Krishna is pictured while Hindu devotees march on the streets to celebrate Janmashtami festival, which marks the birth anniversary of Lord Krishna, in Dhaka, August 14, 2017. (Photo by Mohammad Ponir Hossain/Reuters)

Behaviour: Mammals category. Giant Gathering by Tony Wu, USA. Dozens of sperm whales mingled noisily off Sri Lanka’s northeast coast, stacked as far down as Tony could see. This was a congregation of dozens of social units, like a gathering of the clans. Aggregations like this could be a critical part of the whales’ rich social lives but are rarely reported. Some two thirds of the population was wiped out before commercial whaling was banned in 1986. This kind of major gathering could be “a sign that populations are recovering”, says Tony. (Photo by Tony Wu/Wildlife Photographer of the Year 2017)

Rev. Yeon Ah Lee Moon of the Sanctuary Church holds a gold AR-15 during a ceremony to rededicate marriages at the World Peace and Unification Sanctuary in Newfoundland, Pennsylvania, USA, 28 February 2018. The church, a breakaway from the Unification Church, believes guns are a symbol of the “rod of iron” referenced in the Book of Revelations. (Photo by Jim Lo Scalzo/EPA/EFE)

An African giant pouched rat sniffs for traces of landmine explosives at APOPO's training facility in Morogoro on June 17, 2016. APOPO trains the rats to detect both tuberculosis and landmines at its facility. Every year landmines kill or maim thousands of people worldwide. The trained rats sniff for explosive and so are able to detect the presence of landmines far faster than conventional methods which involve metal detection. (Photo by Carl De Souza/AFP Photo)