People take part in the Burning of the Clavie fire festival in Burghead, Moray, UK on Saturday, January 11, 2025. Burghead welcomes in the New Year twice each year, on both January 11th and the more traditional January 1st. (Photo by Jane Barlow/PA Images via 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)

Members of Chinese Shaolin Temple Warrior Monks perform martial arts during the “Cultures of China, Festival of Spring” Gala in Toronto, Canada, on February 27, 2016. (Photo by Zou Zheng/Xinhua/Sipa USA)

A man covered with dust sits on a street following a reported air strike by Syrian government forces in the rebel-held neighbourhood of Sukkari in the northern city of Aleppo on May 30, 2016. (Photo by Baraa Al-Halabi/AFP Photo)

Rougine, a 19-year-old female Arab fighter among the Syrian Democratic Forces, made up of US-backed Kurdish and Arab fighters, stands in fatigues embracing another colleague near the village of al-Torshan, 20 km on the outskirts of Raqa on February 6, 2017. (Photo by Delil Souleiman/AFP Photo)

Guests have breakfast as another guest climbs to gather at the Skylodge Adventure Suites in the Sacred Valley in Cuzco, Peru, August 14, 2015. Tourists taking on an arduous climb up the steep cliff face of Peru's Sacred Valley are being rewarded for their efforts by being able to spend the night in transparent mountaintop sleeping pods at the “Skylodge Adventure Suites”. To reach the pods, visitors need to climb 400 metres of via ferrata (a steel cable and rungs) up the valley side or hike an intrepid trail through zip lines. (Photo by Pilar Olivares/Reuters)

Revellers react in a water fight during Songkran Festival celebrations, in Hong Kong, China on April 9, 2023. (Photo by Lam Yik/Reuters)

A model displays a creation by designers members of the Carabobo Sostenible program who present a collection made of corn cob husks, plastic, and paper in front of the facade of the Virgen del Carmen church in the town of Mariara, Carabobo state, Venezuela, on August 3, 2023. (Photo by Juan Carlos Hernandez/AFP Photo)