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)

Homeless man Alonzo Harrison, 47, takes a nap on a bench at Pershing Square decorated with Christmas lights in the background on Monday, December 4, 2017, in Los Angeles. A homeless crisis of unprecedented proportions is rocking the West Coast, and its victims are being left behind by the very things that mark the region's success: soaring housing costs, rock-bottom vacancy rates and a roaring economy that waits for no one. (Photo by Jae C. Hong/AP Photo)

Irwan bathes a domesticated crocodile at his house in Bogor, Indonesia on January 22, 2018. Irwan found it as a baby and now it has been living with Irwans family for 20 years. Indonesia is known as a hotbed of exotic pet domestication and trade. People have been known to keep endangered animals such as slow lorises, eagles and pangolins, angering conservationists and animal rights activists. (Photo by Eko Siswono Toyudho/Anadolu Agency/Getty Images)

A Cambodian resident wearing a mask attends a ceremony at Pring Ka-Ek village on the outskirts of Phnom Penh, Cambodia, 09 June 2016. Villagers organized a ceremony to continue their local traditions by paying respect to the Neakta Pring Ka-Ek (Spirit house) to prevent them from diseases and to achieve abundant rice harvests and other agricultural yields. (Photo by Mak Remissa/EPA)

Indian policemen keep guard from the window of a residential house during curfew in Srinagar, Indian controlled Kashmir, Wednesday, July 13, 2016. Curfew imposed in the disputed Himalayan region continues for the fifth consecutive day to suppress anti-India violence following the Friday killing of Burhan Wani, chief of operations of Hizbul Mujahideen, Kashmir's largest rebel group. (Photo by Mukhtar Khan/AP Photo)

In this May 12, 2017 photo, Pupy, an African elephant, stands in the doorway of his enclosure at the former city zoo now known as Eco Parque in Buenos Aires, Argentina. A year ago the 140-year old Buenos Aires zoo closed its doors and was transformed into a park. The first director decided that the animals should be housed in buildings that reflected their countries of origin. A replica of a Hindu temple was built for the Asian elephants. (Photo by Natacha Pisarenko/AP Photo)

Members of the federal police carry a Nazi statue at the Interpol headquarters in Buenos Aires, Argentina, Friday, June 16, 2017. In a hidden room in a house near Argentina's capital, police discovered on June 8th the biggest collection of Nazi artifacts in the country's history. Authorities say they suspect they are originals that belonged to high-ranking Nazis in Germany during World War II. (Photo by Natacha Pisarenko/AP Photo)

A Palestinian girl watches from the balcony of her house as Israeli soldiers conduct a security operation in the village of Aqraba, east of Nablus in the occupied-West Bank, on May 3, 2021. Suspected Palestinian gunmen carried out a drive-by shooting at a nearby junction the previous, leaving three Israeli civilians wounded, one of them in critical condition, with a manhunt underway. (Photo by Jaafar Ashtiyeh/AFP Photo)