A woman jumps as a friend (not seen) takes a photo in front of a large drawing of Pope Francis depicting him as a superhero near the Vatican January 29, 2014. The Argentinian Pope is shown taking off into air with his right fist clenched in a classic Superman style. (Photo by Alessandro Bianchi/Reuters)

Russian soldiers rehearse ahead of a forthcoming parade on Red Square in Moscow on November 5, 2017 The event will take place on November 7, marking the 76 th anniversary of a 1941 parade, when Red Army soldiers marched past the Kremlin walls towards the front line to fight Nazi Germany troops during World War Two. (Photo by Mladen Antonov/AFP Photo)

A Muslim woman wearing a Hijab kicks the water in the Mediterranean Sea as a woman wearing a bikini stands nearby at the beach in Tel Aviv, Israel August 30, 2016. (Photo by Baz Ratner/Reuters)

A man reacts as he tries to extinguish a burning Christmas tree at Festival Walk mall in Kowloon Tong, Hong Kong, November 12, 2019. Anti-government protesters smashed windows and set fires in the mall on Tuesday, including to a big Christmas tree. (Photo by Thomas Peter/Reuters)

Performers debut in the first decade of May 2024 the new Cirque du Soleil Spirit production at the Macallan Estate in Speyside, Scotland, created specially to commemorate the whisky brand’s 200th anniversary. (Photo by Cirque du Soleil 2024)

A child walks to an installation made from fallen leaves by college students, in shape of a sofa, to call for people's attention to environment protection, in Hangzhou, Zhejiang province, China, December 6, 2016. (Photo by Reuters/China Daily)

People dressed as zombies participate in a parade for World Zombie Day 2016 in London's West End, Britain on October 9, 2016. (Photo by Splash News and Pictures)

Most people know Nikon as a purveyor of pro and consumer-grade digital cameras. But the company's expertise with optics bleeds over into related markets – it's one of the science community's major suppliers of microscopes. And each year the company asks the community to send it some of their favorite images of tiny objects. A panel of scientists and journalists have chosen the best of this past year's submissions, which Nikon has placed on its Small World site.

Photo: Honorable Mention. “Snow crystal, illuminated with colored lights (5x)”. (Photo by Dr. Kenneth Libbrecht, California Institute of Technology (Caltech), Department of Physics, Pasadena, California, USA)