Wellcome Photography Prize: Science’s hidden stories

Aged just 21, Katie became the youngest person ever to receive a full face transplant.

This shot shows her new face moments after it was surgically removed from the donor.

The procedure was carried out at Cleveland Clinic in Ohio and took 30 medical professionals more than 30 hours to complete.

The United Nations predicts that the number of people over the age of 60 will reach 2.1 billion by 2050. Health services will struggle to meet the needs of ageing populations, and new technologies such as this robot may offer ways to provide care. The robot, named Zora, can be controlled remotely by a healthcare professional.

This picture was taken at a nursing home in Jouarre, France, where Zora can help patients with communication, and offer comfort and entertainment – even exercise classes. Some people ignore the robots, but others develop an emotional attachment to them.

Since 1999, more than 600 people have undergone a pioneering form of open-heart surgery at Wockhardt Hospital in Bangalore, India.

Instead of using a general anaesthetic, the patient’s body is numbed using an epidural to the neck. This means doctors get a better idea of how the patient’s body is reacting, and even allows communication with patients during the operation.

This shot shows an ice grotto at Rhône Glacier, Switzerland, run by a family as a tourist attraction.

Thanks to rising global temperatures, driven by human activity, the glacier is melting. To protect it, and their livelihood, the family has covered part of the glacier with white geosynthetic blankets in an attempt to reflect away the Sun’s heat.

Record levels of rain during 2010’s monsoon season caused flooding across Pakistan. Countless homes, crops and workplaces were destroyed. Estimates of the number of people killed range from 1,200 to 2,200.

This aerial photograph shows the inhabitants of a flooded village in the Dadu district scrambling for food rations as they battle the wind whipped up by an army helicopter.

• See the rest of the Wellcome Photography Prize competition winners

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