“Valentine Shmalentine”, 2011. (Photo by GillyFace)

A handout photo made available by the World Press Photo (WPP) organization on 13 February 2017 shows a picture by Rossiya Segodnya photographer Valery Melnikov that won the Long-Term Projects – First Prize award of the 60th annual World Press Photo Contest, it was announced by the WPP Foundation in Amsterdam, The Netherlands on 13 February 2017. Caption: Civilians escape from a fire at a house destroyed by an air attack in the Luhanskaya village. (Photo by Valery Melnikov/EPA/Rossiya Segodnya/World Press Photo)

A man carries a civet while taking part in an animal welfare campaign ahead of the World Animal Day celebrations on October 4, in Banda Aceh on October 2, 2022. (Photo by Chaideer Mahyuddin/AFP Photo)

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 protester is taken away by law enforcement officers during a rally held by opposition supporters on the parliamentary election day in Almaty, Kazakhstan on January 10, 2021. Dozens of activists were detained in at least three major cities, including the capital, Nur-Sultan, and Almaty, with reports of independent observers being denied access or detained at some polling stations. (Photo by Petr Trotsenko/Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty)

This picture taken on January 14, 2021 and released from North Korea's official Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) on January 15 shows Pak Jong Chon, chief of the General Staff of the Korean People's Army, during a military parade celebrating the 8th Congress of the Workers' Party of Korea (WPK) in Pyongyang. (Photo by KCNA via KNS/AFP Photo)

A model holds a 18,18 carat pink diamond called “Fortune Pink” that could fetch 30 million U.S. dollars during a preview at Christie’s before the auction sale in Geneva, Switzerland on November 2, 2022. (Photo by Denis Balibouse/Reuters)

A model poses backstage ahead of the Wackie Ju show during Australian Fashion Week Presented By Pandora 2024 at Carriageworks on May 17, 2024 in Sydney, Australia. (Photo by Wendell Teodoro/Getty Images for AFW)