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)

This undated handout image courtesy of the San Diego Zoo Wildlife Alliance shows “Pat”, a Pacific pocket mouse fondly named after actor Sir Patrick Stewart. A mouse named after “Star Trek” actor Patrick Stewart is officially the world's oldest in captivity, a US zoo has announced Pat the Pacific Pocket Mouse – the smallest species of mouse in North America – bagged the title when he hit nine years and 209 days old on February 8, 2023. (Photo by Ken Bohn/San Diego Zoo Wildlife Alliance via AFP Photo)

Poland's Adrian Meronk, left, celebrates with his partner Melania Bobrowicz during the Australian Open golf championship at Victoria golf course in Melbourne, Australia, Sunday, December 4, 2022. (Photo by Asanka Brendon Ratnayake/AP Photo)

In this Saturday, April 13, 2019, file photo, Mariah Bell, center, of the U.S. reacts to her score with her teammates after performing her women's free program routine during the ISU World Team Trophy Figure Skating competition in Fukuoka, southwestern Japan. (Photo by Toru Hanai/AP Photo)

Street vendors hold campaign posters for presidential candidate Patrice Talon ahead of the second round of Benin's presidential election on Sunday in Cotonou, Benin, March 18, 2016. (Photo by Charles Placide Tossou/Reuters)

Amateur astronomer Bill Snyder has been involved with astrophotography since 2007. Photo: The Cygnus Wall is in the southern area of NGC7000 also known as the North America Nebula. It is approximately 1800 light years from Earth, and is in the constellation Cygnus. The Wall is an energized shock front and contains the most concentrated star formations in the nebula. The size of the North America Nebula is about 4 full moons. (Photo and caption by Bill Snyder)

A gravedigger competes as a boy looks on during the first National Grave Digging competition at the public cemetery of Debrecen, 226 km east of Budapest, Hungary, Friday, June 3, 2016. Eighteen two-man teams of Hungarian gravediggers are demonstrating their skills for a place in a regional championship to be held in Slovakia. (Photo by Zsolt Czegledi/MTI via AP Photo)

This artist's rendering illustrates the evaporation of HD 189733b's atmosphere in response to a powerful eruption from its host star. NASA's Hubble Space Telescope detected the escaping gases and NASA's Swift satellite caught the stellar flare. (Credit: NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center)