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)

A Bedouin rifleman hides behind his camel while he carefully takes aim in the Sahara desert. (Photo by Three Lions/Getty Images). Circa 1955

A member of the public wears a pandemic face mask ahead of the prime minister announcing the government's Covid-19 winter strategy on September 13, 2021 in Manchester, England. Tomorrow, British Prime Minister Boris Johnson will set out his plan to manage Covid-19 through the winter, including what actions would need to be taken if the NHS hospital system were at risk of being overwhelmed. (Photo by Christopher Furlong/Getty Images)

Josef Stalin's head is left in a Budapest street after a statue to the communist dictator was torn from its plinth during the Hungarian Revolution in 1956. (Photo by Robert Hofbauer/Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty)

A weather vane on a farm building close to the HS2 line on November 24, 2020 in Great Missenden, England. HS2 protesters continue to occupy key infrastructure sites along the proposed HS2 route claiming that the project is “the most carbon-intensive and environmentally destructive project in UK history”. (Photo by Jim Dyson/Getty Images)

In this July 25, 2015 photo, youth eat a cooked pig's head as they wait for the start of carnival in Santiago, Cuba. (Photo by Ramon Espinosa/AP Photo)

A fan dressed as “Loki” poses before the European premiere of “Avengers: Age of Ultron” at Westfield shopping centre in Shepherds Bush, London April 21, 2015. (Photo by Stefan Wermuth/Reuters)

Girls play in the makeshift refugee camp at the northern Greek border point of Idomeni, Greece, Thursday, March 17, 2016. Leaders of the EU's 28 divided nations reconvene in Brussels in hopes of ironing out disagreements on a proposed agreement with Turkey in the migrants crisis. (Photo by Vadim Ghirda/AP Photo)