Picture shows a mural painting in Ferrol, on September 2, 2018, during the annual street art festival “Meninas de Canido” set up in 2008 to breathe new life in a dying neighborhood. Angry at the announced death of his neighborhood, Canido, in Ferrol, Eduardo Hermida painted his version of Velazquez's “Meninas” on a wall. An act of protest that gave birth to a festival and gave new colors to this city of Galicia. (Photo by Miguel Riopa/AFP Photo)

A man dressed as a “Trapajon”, representing entities of nature, poses for a picture after taking part in the Vijanera Festival in Silio, northern Spain, Sunday, Jan. 6, 2013. The Vijanera masquerade, of pre-Roman origin, is the first carnival of the year in Europe symbolizing the triumph of good over evil and involving the participation of crowds of residents wearing different masks, animal skins and brightly colored clothing with its own complex function and symbolism and becoming the living example of the survival of archaic cults to nature. (Photo by Daniel Ochoa de Olza/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)

An Indian Hindu widow smeared with colors sits and watches others playing during Holi celebrations at the Gopinath temple, 180 kilometres (112 miles) south-east of New Delhi, India Monday, March 21, 2016. A few years ago this joyful celebration was forbidden for Hindu widows. Like hundreds of thousands of observant Hindu women they would have been expected to live out their days in quiet worship, dressed only in white, their very presence being considered inauspicious for all religious festivities. (Photo by Manish Swarup/AP Photo)

An Indian worker makes a roll of the kite thread being prepared on a roadside on the outskirts of Amritsar, India, 24 November 2020. The kite string or the “Dor”, in the local language, is made of crushed glass, glue, colors, and egg to make it strong enough to hold the kite. (Photo by Raminder Pal Singh/EPA/EFE)

People wearing bear furs perform during a festival of New Year ritual dances attended by hundreds in Comanesti, northern Romania, Wednesday, December 30 2015. In pre-Christian rural traditions, dancers wearing colored costumes or animal furs, toured from house to house in villages singing and dancing to ward off evil, in the present the tradition has moved to Romania's cities too, where dancers travel to perform the ritual for money. (Photo by Vadim Ghirda/AP Photo)

In this January 29, 2017 photo, musicians perform for dancers on the shores of Lake Titicaca, as they practice before their presentation for the Virgin of Candelaria celebrations in Puno, Peru. Dancers in colorful masks and elaborate costume celebrate the Virgin of Candelaria, patron saint of communities along the shore of Lake Titicaca, in what's considered the largest Catholic festival in the Andes. (Photo by Rodrigo Abd/AP Photo)

People of the LGBTQI community pose for a photo on a large rainbow colored flag as they take part in the parade to mark Thailand Pride Festival 2022 in Bangkok, Thailand, 27 November 2022. Thailand's LGBTQI groups and foreigners attended the Pride festival to raise awareness and promote sexual diversity and equal rights for the Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender and Queer (LGBTQ) community. The festival also aims to promote tourism in Thailand as Covid-19 restrictions are being lifted, with hopes to becomes an annual and sustainable event in November. (Photo by Narong Sangnak/EPA/EFE/Rex Features/Shutterstock)