A child performs opera during celebrations on the eight day of Chinese Lunar New Year of the Pig, in Taizhou, Zhejiang province, China on February 12, 2019. (Photo by Reuters/China Stringer Network)

Members of the British Thai celebrate the Thai New Year (Songkran) at the Buddhapadipa Temple on April 16, 2018 in London, England. Buddhapadipa Temple, the largest Thai temple in the UK with religious ceremonies Thai classical music and dancing performances as well as stalls selling Thai food, groceries and souvenirs. (Photo by Paul Quezada-Neiman/Alamy Live News)

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)

Revelers march in the Lower Ninth Ward during a second line parade marking the 10th anniversary of Hurricane Katrina on August 29, 2015 in New Orleans, Louisiana. (Photo by Mario Tama/Getty Images)

In this third of seven sequential photos, Elian Gonzalez is held in a closet by Donato Dalrymple, one of the two men who rescued the boy from the ocean, right, as government officials search the home of Lazaro Gonzalez for the young boy, early morning, April 22, 2000, in Miami, Florida. Armed federal agents seized Elian Gonzalez from the home of his Miami relatives before dawn, firing tear gas into an angry crowd as they left the scene with the weeping 6-year-old boy. This photo won the Prize in 2001. (Photo by Alan Diaz/AP Photo)

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)

A woman waters the plants outside her house in an alley at a slum in Mumbai October 28, 2014. (Photo by Danish Siddiqui/Reuters)

A model poses backstage at the Topshop Unique catwalk show during London Fashion Week in London, Britain February 19, 2017. (Photo by Neil Hall/Reuters)