A man dressed as Father Frost, Russian equivalent of Santa Claus, sits by the fire with a reindeer Yakut, marking winter solstice at the Royev Ruchey Park of Flora and Fauna in the Siberian Taiga wood in the suburbs of Krasnoyarsk, Russia, December 21, 2016. (Photo by Ilya Naymushin/Reuters)

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)

American soldiers leaping from an armoured personnel carrier during exercises in Korea, 17th March 1954. (Photo by Three Lions)

A wounded Syrian girl looks on at a make shift hospital in the rebel-held area of Douma, east of the capital Damascus, following shelling and air raids by Syrian government forces on August 22, 2015. At least 20 civilians and wounded or trapped 200 in Douma, a monitoring group said, just six days after regime air strikes killed more than 100 people and sparked international condemnation of one of the bloodiest government attacks in Syria's war. (Photo by Abd Doumany/AFP Photo)

A housewife whose family lives in a shanty cooks beside a road in Manila, Philippines May 25, 2016. (Photo by Erik De Castro/Reuters)

Baby giraffe of Niger (Giraffa Camelopardalis) “Kenai” (R), born on August 25, 2016, kisses his mother “Dioni” on August 31, 2016 at the zoo of La Fleche, northwestern France. (Photo by Jean-Francois Monier/AFP Photo)

A wide-angle view shows the ascent of the shuttle Challenger on January 28, 1986. In the seconds after ignition, the rocket engines' hot blast began the process of destruction. (Photo by NASA)