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)

This picture taken on May 21, 2016 shows professional wrestlers fighting each other during the Wrestling City Asia organized by Singapore Pro Wrestling at a stadium in Kuala Lumpur. Kenneth Thexeira is a mild-mannered writer for an interior-design magazine by day, but on certain nights his alter ego bursts forth in golden tights and a baby-blue cape: enter “The Eurasian Dragon”. (Photo by Mohd Rasfan/AFP Photo)

Men carry a dog, wearing a costume and seated on a stool, as a form of respect as they believe that dogs found water for their ancestors, during a local festival for the Miao ethnic minority in Jianhe county, Guizhou Province, China, August 14, 2016. (Photo by Reuters/China Daily)

Fearless daredevils clamber up the worlds highest man-made climbing wall – running up the face of a 540ft dam. The Diga di Luzzone in Switzerland is considered by climbers as the Everest of wall climbing. (Photo by Ilana Marcus/Caters News)

Members of an American landing party assist troops whose landing craft was sunk by enemy fire off Omaha beach, near Colleville sur Mer, France, June 6, 1944. REUTERS/Weintraub/US National Archives

North Korean soldiers wave along the Yalu River, near the North Korean town of Sinuiju, opposite to the Chinese border city of Dandong October 7, 2014. (Photo by Jacky Chen/Reuters)

Awkwafina poses in the press room with the award for best performance by an actress in a motion picture, musical or comedy for “The Farewell” at the 77th annual Golden Globe Awards at the Beverly Hilton Hotel on Sunday, January 5, 2020, in Beverly Hills, Calif. (Photo by Mike Blake/Reuters)

Buyan, a male Siberian brown bear, cools down under a stream of water sprayed by an employee in an enclosure on a hot summer day, at the Royev Ruchey zoo in Krasnoyarsk, Russia on June 14, 2019. (Photo by Ilya Naymushin/Reuters)