In this photo taken on June 4, 2023, a man plunges into a river in Kishindeh district of Balkh province. (Photo by Wakil Kohsar/AFP Photo)

Woman and man playing domination games in bed. (Photo by NDAB Creativity/Rex Features/Shutterstock)

A man walks past a mural along a street in New Delhi on June 30, 2023. (Photo by Arun Sankar/AFP Photo)

A man drives a modified boat “Jetcar” in the bay in Miami, Florida, on October 4, 2023. (Photo by Chandan Khanna/AFP Photo)

A man walks along a corridor at a hotel in Singapore on February 7, 2024. (Photo by Edgar Su/Reuters)

A man is smeared with “Gulal” as he celebrates Holi, the Hindu spring festival of colours, in Hyderabad on March 25, 2024. (Photo by Noah Seelam/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)

A man pushes her daughter on a cart as they shop at a market in Seoul, South Korea, July 26, 2016. (Photo by Kim Hong-Ji/Reuters)