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)

Amateur honorable mention | Common raven at Banff National Park in Alberta, Canada. (Photo by Colleen Gara/Audubon Photography Awards)

Luis Hernan was always curious about how wireless technologies like radio are transmitted through the air. So after finishing up his studies in architecture, computer science, and design, Hernan decided to research these invisible signals through a PhD at Newcastle University. Hernan set up a system that turned the wireless signals around him into colourful, ghostlike images using long-exposure photography, allowing people to see the strength of the signals around them. (Photo by Luis Hernan)

In this February 1, 2017 photo, Anjali Lama, a transgender model from Nepal, looks at her mobile phone backstage during Lakme Fashion week in Mumbai, India. Growing up as the fifth son in a poor farming family in rural Nepal the dream to be a fashion model came late in life.(Photo by Rafiq Maqbool/AP Photo)

A woman in a Cholita dress poses for photos, at the Uyuni Salt Flat in Bolivia on March 26, 2022. (Photo by Claudia Morales/Reuters)

A woman struggles to drink homemade alcohol poured from the mouth of an idol of “Swet Bhairab” during the annual Indra Jatra festival to worship Indra, Kumari and other deities and to mark the end of monsoon season in Kathmandu, Nepal on September 15, 2019. (Photo by Monika Deupala/Reuters)

Dawn at Blyth beach huts in Northumberland, with the prospect of warm weather over the coming weekend on Friday, October 8, 2021. (Photo by Owen Humphreys/PA Images via Getty Images)

New species have been created by an enterprising artist who has merged photos of animals together in this incredible series of pictures. Californian Sarah DeRemer, 25, started making hybrid animals as a way to improve her photoshop skills. Here: cross between a tabby cat and a sparrow. (Photo by Sarah DeRemer/Caters News)