In this May 1, 2016 photo, a reluctant donkey is alternately pushed and pulled and enticed with carrots toward town hall in order to be dressed for the costume competition at the annual donkey festival in Otumba, Mexico state, Mexico. Otumba was an important donkey market during Spanish colonial times, standing at the crossroads of major roads leading to Mexico City, where the beasts pulled heavy loads and carried travelers. Today, however, farmers use tractors and pickup trucks, and the donkey population is in decline. (Photo by Rebecca Blackwell/AP Photo)

Artists from the Beijing Dance Academy perform to celebrate the Chinese Lunar New Year in Budapest, capital of Hungary, February 6, 2019. (Photo by Attila Volgyi/Xinhua News Agency/Barcroft Media)

With its huge eyes, comical name and diminutive size, Mark R. Smith’s image of a baby Hawaiian bobtail squid can’t help but raise a smile. A curiously endearing creature, the cephalopod is just 1.5cm across, its mantle cavity bearing more than a passing resemblance to a rather natty shower cap. But it is also a beautiful example of symbiosis – nature’s version of “I’ll scratch your back if you scratch mine” – for on the underside of the squid is a light organ which houses bioluminescent bacteria. The squid offers the bacteria protection and food, while the bacteria emit a glow – a handy trait that the squid uses to offset its silhouette, helping it to evade predators in the depths below. Mark R. Smith’s entry combines several images of a Hawaiian bobtail squid with different focus lengths to create a final picture with greater depth of field than normal. (Photo by Mark R. Smith/Wellcome Images/Macroscopic Solutions)

A postman walks past an art work titled “Alphabetti Spaghett” by artist Alex Chinneck on Norborough Road in Sheffield, Yorkshire, England on September 26, 2019. (Photo by Danny Lawson/PA Images via Getty Images)

Fans react as Danish singer Thomas Helmig performs during a concert at the Northside Festival in Aarhus, Denmark on June 3, 2022. (Photo by Helle Arensbak/Ritzau Scanpix via Reuters)

German car manufacturer BMW presents the “Vision Next 100” concept car during the 100th anniversary celebrations in Munich, Germany, Monday, March 7, 2016. (Photo by Matthias Schrader/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)

People take home sacrificial animals after purchasing it at a cattle market ahead of the Muslim festival of Eid al-Adha in Karachi on July 19, 2021. (Photo by Asif Hassan/AFP Photo)