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 man stands in front of a poster created by artist Tomoko Konoike, one of 20 posters officially selected for the Tokyo Olympics and Paralympics, at the Museum of Contemporary Art Tokyo Monday, January 6, 2020. The official posters are out for this year's Tokyo Olympics and Paralympics. The 20 posters have been created by 19 artists in fields ranging from painting, graphic design, and photography. Calligraphy and Japanese manga are also represented. (Photo by Jae C. Hong/AP Photo)

Foreign tourists join the annual Songkran Festival celebration, the Thai traditional New Year, also known as the water festival in Silom district of Bangkok, Thailand, 13 April 2014. The three-day Songkran Festival runs from 13 to 15 April and is celebrated with splashing water and putting powder on each others faces as a symbolic sign of cleansing and washing away the sins from the old year. (Photo by Narong Sangnak/EPA)

A zookeeper wearing orangutan costume tries to escape while zookeepers hold up a net in an attempt to capture it during an Escaped Animal Drill at Tama Zoological Park in Tokyo, Japan on February 22, 2019. The annual escape drill is held to train zookeepers what to do in the event of an animal escape. This year a member of staff wearing an orangutan costume was captured and subdued with large nets, sticks and tranquilizer guns to make sure the orangutan did not get away. (Photo by Rodrigo Reyes Marin/ZUMA Wire/Alamy Live News)

Members of South Korean K-Pop girl group Brave Girls pose on the red carpet at KCON Seoul 2022 in Seoul on May 7, 2022. (Photo by Anthony Wallace/AFP Photo)

A woman collects lotus flowers at a lake in Hanoi, Vietnam, 20 June 2018. Lotus flowers, that bloom every June, are collected by Vietnamese people for their inner parts to be mixed with tea for fragrance. (Photo by Luong Thai Linh/EPA/EFE)

People participate in the annual “No Pants Subway Ride” in New York City, U.S., January 12, 2020. (Photo by Brendan McDermid/Reuters)

An Okinawan woman in a kimono checks her phone before attending a ceremony on Coming of Age Day on January 13, 2019 in Okinawa City, Japan. Coming of Age Day is a Japanese holiday held every January to celebrate people who have reached 20 – the official age of adulthood in Japan. Despite being a solemn affair in some parts of Japan, Okinawans have become known for their flamboyant and occasionally boisterous celebrations. (Photo by Carl Court/Getty Images)