A group of people are seen on a Victoria line train in London, England during the first night of the Night Tube service on August 19 2016. The Central line and Victoria line are the first to operate a Night service with further lines expected to be running by the end of the year. (Photo by SWNS.com)

A protester gestures during a “Yellow vest” protest against higher fuel prices during clashes on the Champs-Elysees in Paris, France, November 24, 2018. (Photo by Benoit Tessier/Reuters)

A sandstorm hits the city of Zhangye in Gansu province, China on November 27, 2018. (Photo by Reuters/China Stringer Network)

A barber cuts hair of his client at a shuttered market during the countrywide traders strike in Lahore on October 29, 2019. Pakistani traders have joined hands to observe a nationwide shutterdown strike against the government over its “anti-business” policies, seeking to bring trade and economic activities across the country to a standstill on October 29 and 30. (Photo by Arif Ali/AFP Photo)

A fan watches the Group D Tunisia v France match on his phone outside the stadium, Al Rayyan, Qatar on November 30, 2022. (Photo by Stephane Mahe/Reuters)

TCU guard Hailey Van Lith (10) drives to the basket between Texas guard Rori Harmon and forward Madison Booker (35) during the second half in the Elite Eight of the NCAA college basketball tournament, Monday, March 31, 2025. in Birmingham, Ala. (Photo by Gerald Herbert/AP Photo)

This picture taken on February 16, 2017 in Fangshan village in China's coastal province Fujians, shows a villager performing the “eating flowers” ritual. Villagers in eastern China have a unique way of washing away the taint of evil spirits – by bathing in a shower of scorching sparks. (Photo by Johannes Eisele/AFP 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)