Afghan security stands guard as a tractor eradicates a field of young poppy plants May 25, 2011, in Argu District, Badakshan, Afghanistan. (Photo by Paula Bronstein/Getty Images)

A young girl navigates her way around Hampton Court maze in the spring sunshine on May 2, 2009 in London, England. The Hampton Court maze is one of the most famous hedge mazes in the world and was planted between 1689 and 1695 by George London and Henry Wise. (Photo by Dan Kitwood/Getty Images)

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)

Images of an American ghost town that was home to gold mines and features a plane which crashed during the filming of 3000 Miles to Graceland starring Kevin Costner and Kurt Russell reveal the remnants of the once thriving location. An assortment of rusted vehicles which include a canary yellow bus, caravans and cars have all been left behind in the desert. (Photo by Abandoned Southeast/Mediadrumworld.com)

This computer image provided Monday March 17, 2014 by the Press Office of socialist candidate to Paris Mayor Anne Hidalgo, shows a tunnel of abandoned railway from the 19th century, now ramshackle and overgrown, turned into a cinema. Hidalgo’s plan envisions not just a green space but in the tunnels, places for farming fish and mushrooms. (Photo by AP Photo/Anne Hidalgo's Press Office)

In this Tuesday, March 20, 2018 photo, a Vampire Bat drinks bovine blood in the Criaturas de la Noche (Creatures of the Night) Bat House, the Audubon Zoo's new night house in New Orleans. The various species are all from Central and South America, and the building's interior simulates an abandoned warehouse set up to protect Mayan artifacts during a dig. (Photo by Gerald Herbert/AP Photo)

A woman shouts asking for help during an eviction in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, Friday, April 11, 2014. Squatters in Rio de Janeiro are clashing with police after a Brazilian court ordered that 5,000 people be evicted from abandoned buildings of a telecommunications company. Officers have used tear gas and stun grenades to try to disperse the families. (Photo by Silvia Izquierdo/AP Photo)