Wellcome Image Awards going on show at the Science Museum, across the UK and beyond

Showcasing the best in science image making, this year's award-winning images include pathways of nerve fibres in the brain, delicate golden scales on a Madagascan sunset moth, and a digitally reconstructed skeleton showing atheroma, the 'furring up' of arteries that supply blood to the brain, in someone who has had a stroke.

BBC Medical Correspondent, Fergus Walsh, is a member of the judging panel and will be presenting this year's awards. He said: "The Wellcome Image Awards consistently uncover a stunning range of images that not only capture the imagination but help bring complex concepts to life. From otherworldly pictures to intricate close ups, these spectacular images draw you in and tell important stories about medical research today."

Following the success of previous Wellcome Image Awards exhibitions, held simultaneously at venues in all four countries of the UK and USA, the 2016 winning images will be brought to even more locations. 16 science centres, museums and galleries, from the Eden Project in Cornwall and the Science Museum in London to the Aberdeen Science Centre, will display the images in their own styles to spark imaginations everywhere.

This year the images will also be appearing as far afield as the Africa Centre for Population Health in South Africa, the Polytechnic Museum in Moscow, Russia and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in USA.

The following venues are participating:

• Africa Centre for Population Health in South Africa
• At-Bristol Science Centre
• Cambridge Science Centre
• Dundee Science Centre
• Eden Project in Cornwall
• Glasgow Science Centre
• Massachusetts Institute of Technology (Koch Institute), USA
• Museum of Science and Industry in Manchester
• Polytechnic Museum in Moscow, Russia
• Satrosphere in Aberdeen
• Science Museum in London
• Science Gallery Dublin
• Techniquest in Cardiff
• Thackray Medical Museum in Leeds
• Thinktank, Birmingham Science Museum at Millennium Point
• W5 in Belfast

The images will also be displayed in Wellcome Trust HQ's windows in London, and will be made available on the Wellcome Image Awards website. They already feature in Wellcome Images collections, where they can be accessed and used along with more than 40,000 other contemporary biomedical and clinical images. The Awards were established in 1997 to reward contributors to the collection for their outstanding work.

Catherine Draycott, Head of Wellcome Images and chair of the judging panel said: "Wellcome Images receives hundreds of extraordinary images every year and we're very excited to share this year's selection of winning images. We are thrilled that they will be displayed in more places than ever before – including as far afield as Russia and America – and can't wait to see how each venue displays these amazing images."

The 20 winning images were chosen by nine judges from all those acquired by the Wellcome Images picture library in the past year. The awards will be presented at a ceremony on 15 March 2016 where the overall winner will also be revealed.

The 2016 Awards will also see the launch of the Julie Dorrington Award for outstanding photography in a clinical environment. Julie Dorrington's work was instrumental in making Wellcome Images one of the most comprehensive collections of clinical images in the world. The award honours Julie's contribution to Wellcome Images and the clinical photography profession.

Since 2011 Wellcome Images have also partnered with the Koch Institute for Integrative Cancer Research, at Massachusetts Institute of Technology, bringing images of their work into the Awards. This year, each organisation will feature an image from their respective selections in the other's awards and provide a judge for each. More information about the Koch Institute Public Galleries and Image Awards can be found on their website.