Boy says hello to a swimming bear in Seattle, Washington on October 4, 2022. Fall weather brings out the Animals' playful side as Attendees celebrate World Animal Day with a visit to Woodlawn Park Zoo. (Photo by Shane Srogi/ZUMA Press Wire/Rex Features/Shutterstock)

A vendor prepares breakfast on his mobile cart place on a railway track on which train services are suspended temporarily due to festival rush in Kolkata, India, Wednesday, October 2, 2024. (Photo by Bikas Das/AP Photo)

People splash each other in downtown Yerevan, Armenia during an annual Vardavar holiday on July 16, 2023. Vardavar is a traditional Armenian water festival, with people drenching each other, dating back to pagan times. The ancient festival is traditionally associated with the goddess Astghik, who was the goddess of water, beauty, love, and fertility. (Photo by Karen Minasyan/AFP Photo)

Israelis take cover from the incoming rocket fire from the Gaza Strip in Ashkelon, southern Israel, Wednesday, October 11, 2023. (Photo by Leo Correa/AP Photo)

Jessie Diggins celebrates during a venue ceremony after winning the bronze medal in the women's sprint free cross-country skiing competition at the 2022 Winter Olympics, Tuesday, February 8, 2022, in Zhangjiakou, China. (Photo by Alessandra Tarantino/AP Photo)

People struggle to hold onto their umbrellas in a crosswalk in the rain in Seoul, South Korea, 08 August 2022, as the rainy seas​on revisits the country. (Photo by Yonhap/EPA/EFE)

Revellers throw tomatoes at each other during the annual “Tomatina”, tomato fight fiesta in the village of Bunol near Valencia, Spain, Wednesday, August 31, 2022. The tomato fight took place once again following a two-year suspension owing to the coronavirus pandemic. (Photo by Alberto Saiz/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)