“They're some of the most intriguing and complex creatures on the planet but they really do have nothing to hide – because theyre totally see-through. Transparent animals – creatures with clear glass-like skin – can be found all over the world but their very existence is still shrouded in mystery. The fascinating organisms verge on the invisible and their translucent skin often helps them elude predators”. – Caters News. Photo: Thornback Skate. (Photo by Ken Lucas/Caters News)

Shamila, 15, from an internally displaced family, adjusts her wedding dress in an old mud house yard, on her wedding day, on the outskirts of Kabul, Afghanistan, Friday, May 19, 2023. “I have no choice. If I don’t accept, my family will be hurt”, she says. Due to poverty and debt, her father had to marry her to a boy at a young age. Her father said that if I did not do this, I might have to give my daughter to someone that I owe. Now, with the money I received from the boy's family, I can pay my debt and treat my son. (Photo by Ebrahim Noroozi/AP 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)

Carine Louis-Jean, 22, poses for a photograph in her destroyed house after Hurricane Matthew hit Jeremie, Haiti, October 17, 2016. “The roof of my house is completely gone and some of walls were destroyed. I have lost everything I had, but I thank God that I have a friend who is letting me stay at her house. I could say I'm lucky, because none of my family died during the hurricane, but I do not think I'm lucky”, said Louis-Jean. (Photo by Carlos Garcia Rawlins/Reuters)

Vickie Leuenberger (L) practices with a mermaid tail with AquaMermaid founder Marielle Chartier Henault in a pool in Montreal, February 19, 2015. The school teaches kids and adults how to swim wearing mermaid tails, and offers mermaid-themed parties. (Photo by Christinne Muschi/Reuters)

People walk along a street with long-tailed macaques in Lopburi, north of Bangkok November 29, 2015. (Photo by Jorge Silva/Reuters)

A ring-tailed lemur sunbakes at Melbourne Zoo in Melbourne, Victoria, Australia on December 21 2016. (Photo by Julian Smith/EPA)