Anti government protesters splash water on each other as they celebrate the traditional Songkran new year festival during a protest in Bangkok, Thailand, 13 April 2022. (Photo by Diego Azubel/EPA/EFE)

Giant panda Ji Lan enjoys an iced birthday cake at Nanning Zoo on June 27, 2022 in Nanning, Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region of China. Giant panda Ji Lan and her brother Ji Mei celebrated their sixth birthday on Monday in Nanning. (Photo by Yu Jing/China News Service via Getty Images)

Wendy Adriaens, owner of animal rescue farm “De Passiehoeve” and nicknamed the Ostrich Whisperer, poses for a photo with three-year-old male ostrich Flodder, in Kalmthout, Belgium, 25 July 2022. (Photo by Stephanie Lecocq/EPA/EFE/Rex Features/Shutterstock)

A girl flies a kite in the afternoon in Dhaka, Bangladesh on August 3, 2022. (Photo by Mohammad Ponir Hossain/Reuters)

An Asian elephant cools off at the zoo during the World Elephant Day in Lodz, central Poland, 12 August 2022. The World Elephant Day is observed every year on August 12. (Photo by Grzegorz Michalowski/EPA/EFE/Rex Features/Shutterstock)

A green rosella and a wallaby, known as a Pademelon, eye off as they drink from a water bowl put out for thirsty wild animals at a back-yard in Kayena, in northern Tasmania, 01 February 2019. Australia recorded its hottest month on record in January; it was also the hottest and driest month on record for the Australian island state of Tasmania. (Photo by Barbara Walton/EPA/EFE)

Palestinian protesters take cover amid clashes with Israeli security forces during a raid in the old city of Nablus, in the occupied West Bank, on May 9, 2023. The Israeli army said its troops had entered Nablus in the northern West Bank, with residents telling AFP they heard explosions during the raid. The Palestinian Red Crescent Society said its medics treated 145 injuries in Nablus, the majority from tear gas inhalation while a dozen people were shot with live fire. (Photo by Jaafar Ashtiyeh/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)