Eight-year-old Niu Dongfang trains at the No. 2 Beijing Shuangqiao School January 13, 2005 in Beijing, China. Most of students in the gymnastics school have to study more than five years from as young as age six before they become athletes. (Photo by Guang Niu/Getty Images)

“The Falles is a traditional celebration held in commemoration of Saint Joseph in Valencia, Spain. The term Falles refers to both the celebration and the monuments created during the celebration. A number of towns in the Valencian Community have similar celebrations inspired by the original in Valencia”. – Wikipedia

Photo: A person prepares for the burning of the “Ninot” caricatures during the last day of the “Fallas” festival on March 19, 2012 in Valencia, Spain. The festival, which runs March 15 – 19, celebrates the arrival of spring with fireworks, fiestas and bonfires. (Photo by Xaume Olleros/Getty Images)

“I bought my first dlsr camera in 2009 may. The first part of my life is gone but the other i dedicate to photography. If i try to imagine myself, i saw someone on the road, who walking straight to the light. This kind of light is the photography and the post-processing in my life. My pictures express the feelings, moods what i felt under my trip in the last few years”. – Ildiko Neer

Photo: “Path to the shine”, 2011. (Photo by Ildiko Neer)

A giant shoe is pictured outside a life-size “Barbie Dreamhouse” of Mattel's Barbie dolls in Berlin, May 15, 2013. The life-sized house, covering about 1,400 square metres offers visitors to try on Barbie's clothes in her walk-in closet, tour her living room and her kitchen. (Photo by Fabrizio Bensch/Reuters)

Hooded demonstrators vandalise a shop window in Mexico City, during the commemoration of the 50th anniversary of the 1968 Tlatelolco student massacre, on October 2, 2018. Fifty years ago, Mexican troops opened fire on student demonstrators, killing hundreds just days before Mexico City hosted the 1968 Olympics – one of the darkest episodes in a year of global turbulence. (Photo by Ronaldo Schemidt/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)

“After an afternoon of hiking and exploring the caves of Rhossili Bay, West Glamorgan, we caught the sun breaking through the clouds”. (Photo by Megan Warren-Davis/The Guardian)