Female Kurdish Peshmerga fighters affiliated with Iran's separatist Kurdistan Freedom Party (PAK), are pictured at a base in an undisclosed location in the Arbil province, the capital of the autonomous Kurdish region of northern Iraq, on December 1, 2022. Iranian-Kurdish rebel groups have for decades sought refuge in northern Iraq's autonomous Kurdistan region, but they have recently come under fresh fire amid weeks of protests in the neighbouring Islamic republic. (Photo by Safin Hamed/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)

In this photo taken on August 29, 2024, an Afghan burqa-clad woman walks past an energy drink advertisement at Kandahar airport in Kandahar. The Taliban government has purged many signs of Western influence but a stimulant drink craze that arrived with US soldiers remains, and has even sprouted a thriving domestic industry. Alcohol is outlawed in Afghanistan but caffeine-rich energy drinks are guzzled by secret police, fed by mothers to suckling children and advertised on billboards more than even Taliban state propaganda. (Photo by Wakil Kohsar/AFP Photo)

Palestinians inspect the damage caused by Israeli attacks in Gaza City on January 9, 2025. (Photo by APAImages/Rex Features/Shutterstock)

A woman wearing a face mask to help protect against the spread of the new coronavirus crosses a stream in Seoul, South Korea, Wednesday, July 15, 2020. (Photo by Lee Jin-man/AP Photo)

A Palestinian man sits on a damaged car following Israeli airstrikes on Jabaliya refugee camp, northern Gaza Strip, Thursday, May 20, 2021. Heavy airstrikes pummeled a street in the Jabaliya refugee camp in northern Gaza, destroying ramshackle homes with corrugated metal roofs nearby. The military said it struck two underground launchers in the camp used to fire rockets at Tel Aviv. (Photo by Khalil Hamra/AP Photo)

Members of the Apollo Rainbow Dancers stretch out in special A train late on May 4, 1985, in New York. The legendary Apollo Theatre celebrated its 50th anniversary in an official reopening after a 15 month refurbishing with a celebrity studded evening. (Photo by Ray Stubblebine/AP Photo)

A man impersonating Kim Jong-un gestures during the athletics at the Rio 2016 Olympic Games at the Olympic Stadium in Rio de Janeiro on August 18, 2016. (Photo by Johannes Eisele/AFP Photo)