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)

Capturing the true essence of Christmas, Lapland is the perfect place to take your family for the holiday period. Situated in the arctic regions of northern Sweden, Finland and Norway, there are a villages in each country around where you can enjoy the full festive experience.

In this Thursday, February 19, 2015 photo, participants at a seminar on edible insects taste a Cricket Consomme at Le Cordon Bleu cooking school in Bangkok, Thailand. A group of chefs and food scientists at the esteemed French school's branch in Bangkok spent the week simmering, sautéing and grilling insects to extract innovative flavors they say could open a new frontier for the world of gastronomy. (Photo by Sakchai Lalit/AP Photo)

Rachel Zegler, right, a cast member in “The Hunger Games: The Ballad of Songbirds & Snakes”, shoots a selfie with fellow cast members Tom Blyth, left, and Hunter Schafer at the Los Angeles premiere of the film, Monday, November 13, 2023, at the TCL Chinese Theatre. (Photo by Chris Pizzello/AP Photo)

Burger King employee Rumi Sekine shows the Kuro Diamond burger, right, and the Kuro Pearl burger at its Shibuya restaurant in Tokyo Tuesday, September 16, 2014. The international hamburger chain in Japan will launch the two new “kuro burger”, or “black burger” menus that sport buns, cheese and sauce all in black color, starting on Friday, Sept. 19, for a limited period. The buns and cheese are darkened with bamboo charcoal while the beef patties made with black-pepper are topped with the garlic sauce using squid ink. (Photo by Koji Sasahara/AP Photo)

Pokot men carry a part of a carcass of a bull killed by a young man during an initiation ceremony in Baringo County, Kenya, January 20, 2016. Far from the bustling city of Nairobi, in an isolated corner of Kenya's Rift Valley, young men from the Pokot community spear a bull in a ceremony called Sapana that takes them into adulthood. (Photo by Siegfried Modola/Reuters)

A reveler attends the “Volta, Alice” celebrations before Rio Carnival, in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, 17 February 2019. The Carnival in Rio de Janeiro runs from 02 to 09 March 2019. (Photo by António Lacerda/EPA/EFE)

Teeming with images of spectacular underwater scenes from around the world, Call of the Blue is the culmination of a five-year project by the photographer and ocean conservationist Philip Hamilton. This groundbreaking book includes contributions from acclaimed scientists and ocean “guardians”, who reveal what drove them to answer the call of the blue. (Photo by Philip Hamilton/The Guardian)