American model and actress Taylor Hill attends the gala ceremony of the 77th Venice International Film Festival in Venice, Italy, September 2, 2020. (Photo by Manuel Silvestri/Reuters)

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)

Behaviour: Mammals category. Giant Gathering by Tony Wu, USA. Dozens of sperm whales mingled noisily off Sri Lanka’s northeast coast, stacked as far down as Tony could see. This was a congregation of dozens of social units, like a gathering of the clans. Aggregations like this could be a critical part of the whales’ rich social lives but are rarely reported. Some two thirds of the population was wiped out before commercial whaling was banned in 1986. This kind of major gathering could be “a sign that populations are recovering”, says Tony. (Photo by Tony Wu/Wildlife Photographer of the Year 2017)

An Afghan policeman stands guard as smoke and flames rise from the site of a huge blast struck near the entrance of Kabul's international airport, in Kabul on August 10, 2015. A huge blast struck near the entrance of Kabul's international airport on August 10 during the peak lunchtime period, officials said, warning that heavy casualties were expected. “The explosion occurred at the first check point of Kabul airport”, said deputy Kabul police chief Sayed Gul Agha Rouhani. (Photo by Shah Marai/AFP Photo)

A volunteer approaches a male toad to pick him up from a road near Berlin on March 18, 2012 in Gueterfelde, Germany. (Photo by Sean Gallup/Getty Images)

Festival-goers take photo inside of Spectra, a seven-story spiral walkway up to a viewing deck, at the Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival in Indio, California, on April 17, 2022. (Photo by Valerie Macon/AFP Photo)

A ghost glass frog in the Chocó rainforest, Ecuador in November 2020. The marbled swirling “hypnotising” eyes are thought to be helpful in attracting a mate. (Photo by David Weiller/WENN)

A golden pheasant and squirrels are seen in Lushan County of Pingdingshan City, central China's Henan Province, November 14, 2017. (Photo by Liu Xianguo/Xinhua/Barcroft Images)