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 park ranger stands next to a nothern white female rhinoceros named Najin at Ol Pejeta Conservancy, some 290 kms north of the Kenyan capital, Nairobi, on January 27, 2015. Najin is one of only five members of the sub-species left on the planet, three of which reside at Ol Pejeta Conservancy. Conservationists and scientists met in Kenya this week to come up with a last ditch plan to save the northern white rhinoceros from extinction. (Photo by Tony Karumba/AFP Photo)

The entire cast perform during a production media call for Singin' In The Rain at Her Majesty's Theatre on May 12, 2016 in Melbourne, Australia. (Photo by Robert Cianflone/Getty Images)

Two baby orangutans play with each other at the wildlife department in Kuala Lumpur, Malayasia, October 19, 2015. The Malaysian wildlife department in July seized two baby Sumatran orangutans, found in duffel bags, from traffickers who were attempting to sell them to buyers in Malaysia. According to local media, the orangutans will be returned to Medan, Indonesia on Tuesday. The illegal wildlife trade is estimated to be $8 billion a year worldwide, according to TRAFFIC, a wildlife trade monitoring network. (Photo by Olivia Harris/Reuters)

People walk on the installation “The Floating Piers” on Lake Iseo by Bulgarian-born artist Christo Vladimirov Yavachev, known as Christo, at the installation's last weekend near Sulzano, northern Italy, July 2, 2016. (Photo by Wolfgang Rattay/Reuters)

Dr. Hannah Cobb from The University of Manchester looks at a viking sword during a viewing at CFA Archaeology of artefacts discovered from the first fully intact Viking boat burial site on October 18, 2011 in Edinburgh, Scotland. (Photo by Jeff J Mitchell/Getty Images)

A 12th century manuscript of The Old Testament sits in the Chained Library of Hereford Cathedral after it's annual spring clean on January 24, 2012 in Hereford, England. (Photo by Christopher Furlong/Getty Images)