Two friends attempt to balance in the icy conditions in Newcastle, England on February 2, 2019. Boozy Brits across the UK took to the streets last night to ensure they got February off to a wet start after “Dry January”. (Photo by Craig Connor/North News and Pictures)

Residents wade through the flood brought by typhoon Vamco in Manila, the Philippines, on November 12, 2020. Typhoon Vamco, the third powerful cyclone to batter the Philippines in 11 days, made landfall on Wednesday night, unleashed fierce winds and intense rains that triggered landslide, rockslide and flash floods. (Photo by Rouelle Umali/Xinhua News Agency)

Mina Sue Choi (L) from South Korea reacts after winning the Miss Earth 2022 pageant during the coro​nation night in Manila, Philippines, 29 November 2022. (Photo by Francis R. Malasig/EPA/EFE)

There were huge thunder and lightening stroms in the South of England last night. Photographer Jamie Russell captured a stuning lightening striking the sea at Freshwater Bay on the Isle of Wight on September 6, 2022. (Photo by Jamie Russell/Bournemouth News)

Runner-up. “The City of London, looking towards the Royal Exchange and the Bank of England. The ever-changing London skyline provides many excellent opportunities for cityscape photography, none more exciting than the ebb and flow of traffic at night”. (Photo by Mark Caldon/The Guardian)

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 picture made available on 17 July 2015 shows the bright line of the Milky Way above the old oaks at the Rogalin landscape Park in Rogalin village, near Poznan, on the night of 16 July 2015. (Photo by Lukasz Ogrodowczyk/EPA)

People look at sharks from an underwater room structure installed in the Aquarium of Paris, France, March 14, 2016. Airbnb and the Aquarium of Paris offer contest winners a night underwater sleeping with sharks and create a research platform for “misunderstood” shark species. (Photo by Charles Platiau/Reuters)