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)

Swimmers in fancy dress take part in a Christmas Day dip at Exmouth, Devon, England, Saturday, December 25, 2021. (Photo by Ben Birchall/PA Wire via AP Photo)

A Kimono-clad woman wearing a fashionable face mask poses for a photograph at Coming of Age Day celebration ceremony at Yokohama Arena after the government declared the second state of emergency for the capital and some prefectures, amid the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) outbreak, in Yokohama, south of Tokyo, Japan on January 11, 2021. (Photo by Issei Kato/Reuters)

Irish television personality and presenter Maura Higgins showed off her platinum hairdo on April 18, 2022 at the annual music and arts festival Coachella festival held at the Empire Polo Club in California. (Photo by Instagram)

A demonstrator plays the role of person hanging herself during a protest over the Thai government's handling of the coronavirus pandemic and to demand Prime Minister Prayuth Chan-ocha's resignation, in Bangkok, Thailand, September 6, 2021. (Photo by Soe Zeya Tun/Reuters)

A Russian Su-35S combat aircraft and a Tu-95ms strategic bomber fly in formation above a church during a rehearsal for the flypast, which is part of a military parade marking the anniversary of the victory over Nazi Germany in World War Two, in Moscow, Russia on May 4, 2022. (Photo by Maxim Shemetov/Reuters)

Members of South Korean K-Pop girl group Brave Girls pose on the red carpet at KCON Seoul 2022 in Seoul on May 7, 2022. (Photo by Anthony Wallace/AFP Photo)

Participants run through coloured powder during the Colour Run race in Moscow, Russia on June 5, 2022. (Photo by Maxim Shemetov/Reuters)