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)

Enthusiasts gathered at Cad East in Snowdonia National Park, England to take pictures of F-15 Eagle fighters as they completed the Mach Loop, November 2017. (Photo by Caters News Agency)

Members of the Washington Commanders Command Force dance during a timeout against the Seattle Seahawks during the second half at Northwest Stadium in Landover, Maryland on November 2, 2025. (Photo by Geoff Burke/Reuters)

Te Matatini Kapa Haka Aotearoa perform the Haka at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe on the Royal Mile on August 14, 2014 in Edinburgh, Scotland. The largest performing arts festival in the world, this years festival hosts more than 3,000 shows in nearly 300 venues across the city. (Photo by Jeff J. Mitchell/Getty Images)

The 12th round of the 2024 Motocross World Championship got under way in Lombok, Indonesia, on July 07, 2024. Jeffrey Herlings of the Netherlands won the round, and there are eight more to go. (Photo by IPA/Splash News and Pictures/Rex Features/Shutterstock)

Holly Spring, a New Zealand photographer, says she is inspired by her daughter Violet, who was born with multiple ailments; Hirschsprung’s Disease, a blockage of the large intestine and Symbrachydactyly, a limb abnormality. The series was designed to show her daughter that she “can live a life without obstacles”. (Photo by Holly Spring)

Kim Leuenberger is a Swiss photographer with a love for travel. She believes we are all explorers and is currently studying photography at University of the Arts London. These photos are from her series, “Traveling Cars Adventures”. Photo: “Lover of the Light”, Red Union Jack Mini Cooper, Bern, Switzerland, October 2012. (Photo by Kim Leuenberger)

The competition, which is run by the Royal Observatory Greenwich in association with BBC Sky at Night Magazine, is now in its sixth year and has received over 2,500 entries. Photo: Centre of the Heart Nebula by Ivan Eder (Hungary). Situated 7500 light years away in the “W”-shaped constellation of Cassiopeia, the Heart Nebula is a vast region of glowing gas, energized by a cluster of young stars at its centre. The image depicts the central region, where dust clouds are being eroded and moulded into rugged shapes by the searing cosmic radiation. (Photo by Ivan Eder)