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)

Soviet cosmonaut and the first man to travel in space, Yury Alekseyvich Gagarin (1934–1968) arriving in London for a Russian trade fair. (Photo by Douglas Miller/Getty Images)

Thousands of fireflies dance around Aurora Ghizzi Panizza, age 4, in the grounds of the 15th-century Castello di Torrechiara in Parma, Italy on July 16, 2022. (Photo by Alberto Ghizzi Panizza/Animal News Agency)

Maj. Matt O'Donnell of Glenelg, MD shields himself from rotor wash as Ospreys carrying the delegation of U.S. Secretary of Defense Leon Panetta leaves on March 14, 2012 at Forward Operating Base Shukvani, Afghanistan. Panetta is also scheduled to meet with President Karzai during his two-day visit to Afghanistan. The trip comes as the Taliban has vowed revenge following this past weekend's killing spree by a U.S. soldier who is accused of killing 16 civilians in Afghanistan. Most of those killed were children and women. (Photo by Scott Olson/Getty Images)

An inmate (L) tends to a fellow prisoner while performing ear candling during an alternative therapy session as part of the ACUDA programme, at a complex of ten prisons in Porto Velho, Rondonia State, Brazil, August 27, 2015. Ear candling, which involves inserting a hollow cone-shaped device into the ear canal and lighting the exposed end, is believed by practitioners to draw out earwax. According to ACUDA the therapy is beneficial for the inmates' emotional health. (Photo by Nacho Doce/Reuters)

Florence Welch of Florence And The Machine performs at Spark Arena on January 30, 2019 in Auckland, New Zealand. (Photo by Dave Simpson/WireImage)

A government employee reacts as she is sprayed with disinfectant before entering a government office building to curb the spread of COVID-19 on March 19, 2020 in Pasig city, Metro Manila, Philippines. The Philippine government has sealed off Luzon, the country's largest and most populous island, to prevent the spread of COVID-19. Land, sea, and air travel has been suspended, while government work, schools, businesses, and public transportation have been ordered shut in a bid to keep some 55 million people at home. The Philippines' Department of Health has so far confirmed 217 cases of the new coronavirus in the country, with at least 17 recorded fatalities. (Photo by Ezra Acayan/Getty Images)

In this Thursday, July 19, 2018, photo, a Syrian shopkeeper spraying water as waits for customers at the Hamadiyah market, named after the 34th Sultan of the Ottoman Empire Abdul Hamid II, in the Old City of Damascus, Syria. The celebratory mood in government-controlled areas stems from successive military advances in the past year and an impression that President Bashar Assad, with massive support by unwavering allies Russia and Iran, has won the war or at least militarily defeated the opposition trying to topple him. (Photo by Hassan Ammar/AP Photo)