Thailand’s Sanctuary of Truth is an all-wood building filled with sculptures based on traditional Buddhist and Hindu motifs. It is covered in intricate wood carvings, meant to depict complex ideas about ancient thought, human responsibility, and the cycle of life. (Photo by Yury Taranik/Getty Inages)

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)

Dancers wearing traditional attires take part in the 7th Annual Ingoma Dance Competition organised by The Natal Playhouse theatre in Durban on March 21, 2017. The Ingoma Dance is considered one of the most purist forms of traditional Zulu dance. (Photo by Rajesh Jantilal/AFP Photo)

Scuba divers during an ice diving class at the Sea Frogs scuba diving center in the Russian Far Eastern city of Vladivostok on January 30, 2022. The air temperature is –11°C (12.2°F), the water temperature is –2°C (28.4°F). Scuba divers undergo theoretical and practical training in ice diving and perform dives in the open water during the day and the night time as part of the Ice Diver NDL special program. (Photo by Yuri Smityuk/TASS)

A woman holds a disguised cuy or guinea pig (Cavia Porcellus), a popular source of meat in southern Colombia, at the Cuy Festival in La Laguna municipality, Nariño department, Colombia, on January 7, 2022. (Photo by JOaquin Sarmiento/AFP Photo)

Race goers enjoying Grand National Day at the Randox Grand National Festival at Aintree, Liverpool, Britain, 09 April 2022. This year's Grand National is the 174th edition of the legendary annual horse race at the Aintree Racecourse in Liverpool. (Photo by Peter Powell/EPA/EFE)

This artist's scoreboard displays a fictional game between Mars and Earth, with Mars in the lead. It refers to the success rate of sending missions to Mars, both as orbiters and landers. Of the previous 39 missions targeted for Mars from around the world, 15 have been successes and 24 failures. For baseball fans, that's a batting average of .385. The United States has had 13 successes out of 18 attempts, or a “batting average” of .722. NASA's Curiosity rover, set to land on the Red Planet the evening of Aug. 5, 2012 PDT (morning of Aug. 6 EDT), will mark the United States' 19th attempt to tackle the challenge of Mars, and the world's 40th attempt. (Image by NASA/JPL-Caltech)

A Palestinian man plays with a horse at the beach of the Mediterranean Sea in Gaza City in the northern Gaza Strip, Friday October 1, 2021. The beach is one of the few open public spaces in this densely populated city. (Photo by Hatem Moussa/AP Photo)