Performer Zhang Yashu from a Chinese ballet company perform during a photo shoot in front of the Australia's iconic landmarks Opera House (L) and Habour Bridge in Sydney on February 17, 2014. One of China's celebrated dance campanies is bringing one of the country's biggest ballet production to Australia for a series of performances in Sydney and Melbourne. (Photo by Saeed Khan/AFP Photo)

“The Tonight Show” host Jimmy Fallon, center, exits the water during the Chicago Polar Plunge, Sunday, March 2, 2014, in Chicago. Fallon joined Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel in the event. (Photo by Andrew A. Nelles/AP 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)

An Indian girl dressed in traditional attire reacts to camera as she watches a cultural performance during Lohri festival in Jammu, India, Monday, January 13, 2014. Lohri is a celebration of the winter solstice observed by Hindus and Sikhs in northern India. (Photo by Channi Anand/AP Photo)

Krysten Ritter is seen at Sundance Festival on January 19, 2014 in Park City, Utah. (Photo by Alo Ceballos/GC Images)

Jack, a Lurcher from Dogs Trust Salisbury, walks past a window display of models in a Dogs Trust shop window in Salisbury, as part of a campaign to discourage the impulse buying of dogs ahead of Valentine's Day, on February 10, 2014. (Photo by Matt Alexander/PA Wire)

National police transport an anti-government protester detainee during a protest against Nicolas Maduro's government in Caracas March 13, 2014. Venezuela's state prosecutor said on Thursday the death toll from a month of violent protests had risen to 28, after the nation's top court ordered opposition mayors to dismantle barricades set up by street protesters. State prosecutor Luisa Ortega Diaz, speaking on the sidelines of the U.N. Human Rights Council in Geneva, also said 1,293 detainees had been released and 104 remained in custody accused of serious crimes during the anti-government demonstrations. (Photo by Carlos Garcia Rawlins/Reuters)

The 100-metre (300-foot), sword-wielding statue of “The Motherland” is seen in the National Museum of the History of the Great Patriotic War in Kiev March 17, 2014. On a blustery day on the banks of the Dnieper, the statue of “The Motherland”, a Soviet hammer and sickle on her shield, towered overhead, a reminder of the common cause Ukrainians and Russians died for side by side in their millions in World War Two and which Russian President Vladimir Putin thinks Ukraine has betrayed by turning to “fascism” and the West. (Photo by Konstantin Grishin/Reuters)