Women wait for customers at the fish harbour in Kasimedu Fish market, Chennai, India, on June 26, 2024. (Photo by Riya Mariyam R./Reuters)

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)

People are caught in a dust storm in New Delhi, India May 23, 2016. (Photo by Anindito Mukherjee/Reuters)

Nosy neighbour by Sam Hobson, UK. Sam knew exactly who to expect when he set his camera on the wall one summer’s evening in a suburban street in Bristol, the UK’s famous fox city. He wanted to capture the inquisitive nature of the urban red fox in a way that would pique the curiosity of its human neighbours about the wildlife around them. (Photo by Sam Hobson/2016 Wildlife Photographer of the Year)

A great crested grebe feeds a chick sitting on its mother’s back on a lake in Cáceres, Spain. (Photo by Jose Luis Ruiz/Solent News & Photo Agency)

People view pelicans napping on a footpath in St James’s Park in London, United Kingdom on a mild day October 18, 2021. (Photo by Stephen Chung/Alamy Live News)

Smoke and steam billow from Belchatow Power Station, Europe's largest coal-fired power plant powered by lignite, operated by Polish utility PGE, in Rogowiec, Poland on November 22, 2023. (Photo by Kacper Pempel/Reuters)

Tank crew standing in front of M-4 tank, Ft. Knox, Kentucky, June, 1942. (Alfred Palmer/OWI/LOC)