They show the wonders of the world around us in incredible detail, providing views that could never be seen without the latest in imaging technology. These striking pictures have been selected as the best scientific images of the year in the Wellcome Image Awards 2015. Among the winners are the bulging eye of a greenfly magnified through an electron microscope and the papillae that create the rough surface of a cat's tongue. This image of a greenfly's eye (left) shows the thousands of lenses pointing in all directions on its surface while the aurora-like image of a cross-section of a mouse brain reveals the complex network of neurons at different depths, with red being the nearest and green the furthest away . Others show the strange beauty of a goat's stomach and the neuron connections inside a mouse brain lit up like a multi-coloured aurora. Another gruesome, but also strangely touching image, shows the dissected uterus of a New Forest pony preserved in perspex at the Royal Veterinary College, with the fetus still inside the placenta. Dr Adam Rutherford, the geneticist and broadcaster who was a member of the judging panel, said: 'The breath-taking riches of the imagery that science generates are so important in telling stories about research and helping us to understand often abstract concepts. 'It's not just about imaging the very small either, it's about understanding life, death, sex and disease: the cornerstones of drama and art. 'Once again, the Wellcome Image Awards celebrate all of this and more with this year’s incredible range of winning images.' A scanning electron microscope allowed scientists to reveal the long snout of a boll weevil (left), while the dissected uterus of a New Forest pony reveals its foal still in the placenta and preserved in perspex (centre) and the strange beauty inside a goat's second stomach (right) The super-resolution micrograph of a natural killer cell (left) in the immune system shows it examining a second darker and rounder cell for signs of disease while the multicoloured image (right) is a map of a mouse's nervous system showing how signals are passed between nerves . In total there are 20 images that have been selected as winners in the awards by a panel of nine judges. The overall winner of the competition is due to be announced at a ceremony in London next week. The images are to go on show in exhibitions around the world including Bristol, Glasgow, Dundee, Cornwall, Galveston, Texas, Belfast and Boston, Massachusetts. In one picture - which looks more like a Jackson Pollock painting - the colour coded map of a fruit fly's nervous system is revealed. The image on the left shows an interactive multi-sensory unit that vibrates, bubbles and lights up to distract and comfort anxious children receiving treatment in hospital while the image on the right reveals bundles of nerve fibres inside a healthy adult living human brain are revealed using magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) to virtually slice the brain from front to back, with the front of the head on the left side of the image . The image on the left shows a map of a mouse kidney as it breaks down food to make energy while the tiny bumps on the image on the right are the papillae - tiny bumps - that make a cats tongue feel rough seen using a light microscope in a slide made by Victorian scientists . The yellow neuron is able to sense vibrations while messages entering and leaving neurons at synapses are shown as blue and red circles. The orange circles are mitochondria. Another of the images shows the curved spine of a 79-year-old woman suffering from kyphosis, or dowagers back, taken by Mark Bartley at Addenbrookes Hospital in Cambridge. The picture on the left shows the badly curved spine of a 79-year-old woman at Addenbrooks Hospital in Cambridge while the picture on the right shows a 3D printed set of human lungs inside the ribcage viewed from the back with the bones of the spine (vertebrae) visible in the centre . The close up view of the greenfly eye shows in detail the thousands of tiny lenses facing in different on its surface that enable the insect to see very fast movements. The insects are unable to see fine details or distant objects however. A scanning electron microscope also helped researchers capture the image of the head of a boll weevil found on the front porch of a suburban house in the USA. The curved snout of these pests are used to feed on cotton plants and they can devastate entire crops. An image of an almost transparent parasitic wasp, called Wallaceaphytis kikiae, shows the recently discovered species in incredible detail. When the wasps larvae hatch, the eat their hosts from the inside out. Catherine Draycott, head of Wellcome Images and a member of the judging panel said: 'This year’s selection of winning images is not only beautiful - they bring to life an incredible array of innovative imaging techniques, and hint at stories and ideas that go beyond the visual. 'We are thrilled that they will be displayed in so many venues, and look forward to seeing the range of exhibitions, as diverse as the images themselves.' The picture on the right shows a scanning electron micrograph of a single brain cell while on the right there is a tiny parasitoid wasp called Wallaceaphytis kikiae viewed from above. This wasp was recently discovered in the rainforests of Borneo and measures just 0.75mm in length .
The 20 scientific pictures and illustrations have been selected as final winners of the Wellcome Image Awards 2015 . Scanning electron microscopes were used to show thousands of lenses giving a 180 degree view in a greenfly's eye . Cross section of a cat's tongue reveals tiny bumps on the surface that give it the feel of sandpaper when they lick . One heart-breaking image shows the badly curved spine of a 79-year-old woman with a condition called kyphosis . The images, chosen by a panel of nine judges, will on display in exhibitions around the world from next week .