Characters dressed as Elmo and Cookie Monster who pose for tips take a photo by request from a tourist (2nd R, black pants) in Times Square in the Manhattan borough of New York City, January 29, 2016. (Photo by Rickey Rogers/Reuters)

Ocean Beach after a rain storm in San Francisco, California, US, on Thursday, January 5, 2023. A powerful storm with hurricane-force gusts has begun to wind down after ripping across California, leaving behind power outages, flood threats and road closures just hours before another drenching is set to wash over the state. (Photo by Shelby Knowles/Bloomberg)

Nepalese women performs ritual as they take a holy bath in the Bagmati River, during the Rishi Panchami festival, in Kathmandu, Nepal September 18, 2015. Rishi Panchami is observed on the last day of Teej when women worship Sapta Rishi (Seven Saints) to ask for forgiveness for sins committed during their menstrual periods throughout the year. The Hindu religion considers menstruation as a representation of impurity and women are prohibited from taking part in religious practices during their monthly menstruations. (Photo by Navesh Chitrakar/Reuters)

Hisakata Hiroyuki, a talented photographer from Japan, has managed to snap a group of mortal tomcats in a variety of high-flying kung fu poses. Using his own rapid-fire reactions, he photographs the lovable cats flying through the air, their legs and paws outstretched, like something out of an action movie. (Photo by Hisakata Hiroyuki/Caters News Agency)

A reveller takes part in the Gay Pride Parade in San Salvador, on June 24, 2017. (Photo by Marvin Recinos/AFP Photo)

Danny Batsalkin holds a rifle during the annual National Rifle Association (NRA) meeting in Dallas, Texas, U.S., May 18, 2024. (Photo by Shelby Tauber/Reuters)

People wait on a taxi line near Madison Square Garden, Wednesday, September 23, 2015, as a 225-foot-tall hand-painted billboard of Pope Francis stands out at Eighth Avenue in New York. The billboard, designed by Israel Ochoa of DeSales Media, including a photo by photographer Giulio Napolitano, marks the arrival of the pope Thursday. (Photo by Craig Ruttle/AP 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)