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)

Two Herens cows lock horns during the qualification round of the annual “Battle of the Queens” cow fight finals in Aproz, in the western Alpine canton of Valais May 5, 2013. Each year when taken to the alpine pastures, the cows test their strength and fight for the herd's leadership. The competition continues until a new queen has forced all the other cows to retreat. (Photo by Valentin Flauraud/Reuters)

In this 2017 photo provided by Simon Pierce, Jonathan Green checks on a fin-mounted satellite tag on a whale shark in the Galapagos Islands area of Ecuador. Despite typically being bigger than a double-decker bus, the elusive whale shark has only tiny, almost useless teeth. It's also one of the least understood animals in the ocean. (Photo by Simonjpierce.com via AP Photo)

A hippopotamus performs during a show at the circus in Krasnoyarsk, Siberia, Russia, July 7, 2016. (Photo by Ilya Naymushin/Reuters)

Shepherd brothers Mustafa Erbay and Baran Erbay train their camels on snowy grounds, enabling them to become champions in competitions held in the Aegean and Mediterranean regions in Baskale district of Van, Turkey on February 1, 2020. (Photo by Ozkan Bilgin/Anadolu Agency via Getty Images)

An orphan plays with her new hula hoop during the food and toy distribution, for total about 500 orphans in 11 orphanages, by National Muslim COVID-19 Response Committee to celebrate Eid al-Fitr, the Muslim holiday which marks the end of the fasting month of Ramadan at Good hope markazil Banatil Islamia orphans centre in Nairobi, Kenya, on May 25, 2020. (Photo by Yasuyoshi Chiba/AFP Photo)

Indonesian firefighters spray disinfectant at the public area near an elephant enclosure at Ragunan Zoo prior to its reopening this weekend after weeks of closure due to the large-scale restrictions imposed to help curb the new coronavirus outbreak, in Jakarta, Indonesia, Wednesday, June 17, 2020. As Indonesia's overall virus caseload continues to rise, the capital city has moved to restore normalcy by lifting some restrictions, saying that the spread of the virus in the city of 11 million has slowed after peaking in mid-April. (Photo by Dita Alangkara/AP Photo)

A 40-tonne humpback launching out of the water in an incredible breach in New South Wales, Australia on October 2022 in front of a sunset. The humpback whale can grow up to 56 feet long and typically covers 9,900 miles a year as it travels through the oceans of the world. Humpback whales are a species of Baleen whale, meaning they don't have teeth. Instead, they have baleen which helps them to filter feed. Their main source of food is krill or tiny bait fish. (Photo by Jodie Lowe/Media Drum Images)