Savannah Bananas utility player Dakota Albritton throws in the seventh inning against the Savannah Party Animals at Sloan Park in Mesa, Arizona, on April 25, 2024. (Photo by Matt Kartozian/USA TODAY Sports)

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)

Enthusiasts gathered at Cad East in Snowdonia National Park, England to take pictures of F-15 Eagle fighters as they completed the Mach Loop, November 2017. (Photo by Caters News Agency)

Women wearing kimono and protective masks make their way to Coming of Age Day celebration ceremony, amid the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) outbreak, in Tokyo, Japan, January 10, 2022. (Photo by Kim Kyung-Hoon/Reuters)

Belgium's Lisa Ingenito competes in the Mixed Artistic Swimming duet technical final on August 15, 2022 during the LEN European Aquatics Championships in Rome. (Photo by Filippo Monteforte/AFP Photo)

Elle & The Pocket Belles on day three of the Qatar Goodwood Festival 2022 at Goodwood Racecourse, Chichester on Thursday July 28, 2022. (Photo by Steven Paston/PA Wire)

Female Iraqi Kurdish peshmerga fighters watch on as they release a bear into the wild in the Gara Mountains near the northern Iraqi city of Dohuk on March 4, 2018, after Iraqi Kurdish Animal rights activists from a local NGO rescued it from a private home. (Photo by Safin Hamed/AFP Photo)

American actress Jennifer Coolidge poses on the red carpet as she arrives for the Time Magazine 100 gala celebrating their list of the 100 Most Influential People in the world in New York City, New York, U.S., April 26, 2023. (Photo by Andrew Kelly/Reuters)