Nicolo Martinenghi of Italy competes in the Men's 50m Breaststroke Final on day six of the 2022 FINA World Short Course Swimming Championships at Melbourne Sports and Aquatic Centre on December 18, 2022 in Melbourne, Australia. (Photo by Daniel Pockett/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)

A picture taken on October 17, 2014 in Vevey shows a giant fork designed by Switzerland's artist Jean-Pierre Zaugg to commemorate Nestle's Alimentarium Food Museum 10th anniversary. World's biggest food company, Swiss Nestle Group announced results sales down by 3.1% for the first nine months of 2014 to 66.2 billion Swiss francs (55.1 billion euros). (Photo by Fabrice Coffrini/AFP Photo)

Female bodybuilder Joanne Caldwell competes during the IBFA British Finals Night of Champions contest at the Federation Brewery in Gateshead, Britain on October 22, 2023. (Photo by Lee Smith/Reuters)

One of two black-and-white ruffed lemur pups born at Blair Drummond Safari and Adventure Park, near Stirling, UK on Friday, May 24, 2024.The critically endangered lemur pups, both female were born on April 14 and have been named Nova, meaning “new” and Evie meaning “life”. (Photo by Andrew Milligan/PA Images via Getty Images)

A preserved Sumatran Tiger (Panthera tigris sumatrae) that was collected by the Natural Resources Conservation Board (BKSDA) as evidence is burnt in Palembang, Indonesia on March 18, 2022. (Photo by Novaa Wahyudi/Antara Foto via Reuters)

A Hercules beetle, one of the largest species of its kind, in seen at the Monteverde Cloud Forest Biological Reserve, in Puntarenas, Costa Rica, on May 23, 2023. In the Monteverde cloud forest, dense fog among the lush vegetation is increasingly rare and temperatures are increasing each year due to climate change. (Photo by Ezequiel Becerra/AFP Photo)

Mamediara attends the Met Gala Party for Jean Paul Gaultier x Shayne Oliver Group held at Sapphire in Manhattan on May 6, 2024. (Photo by Jeenah Moon for The Washington Post)