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)

Visitors enjoy food at a table bounded by a banner with a character fast food restaurant Kentucky Fried Chicken, in Jakarta, Indonesia, on June 23, 2020. The display banner is useful for limiting physical distance for visitors who eat on the spot. The Indonesian government has imposed a new set of regulations known as “new normal”, which will be implemented in stages starting in early June for some provinces. (Photo by Jefta Images/Barcroft Media via Getty Images)

Mother and daughter volunteers Niki, right, and Rachel practice their pancake tossing technique in the streets of Wimborne model town and gardens before taking part in the Wimborne Minster virtual pancake race, in Wimborne, England, Tuesday February 16, 2021. Although a physical race cannot take place this year due to the coronavirus restrictions, Wimborne Minster has invited people to film themselves tossing a pancake for 30 seconds and posting it to Facebook. (Photo by Andrew Matthews/PA Wire via AP Photo)

A man holds a tree branch and marches by burning tires during a protest against insecurity, on August 7, 2023, near the Prime Minister's official house in Port-au-Prince, Haiti. Some 300 women and minors were kidnapped in Haiti by criminal gangs in the first half of this year, UNICEF said Monday, warning of a disturbing rise in abductions that leave “deep physical and psychological scars”. The surge in abductions threatens “both the people of Haiti and those who have come to help”. (Photo by Richard Pierrin/AFP Photo)

Daredevil motorcycle rider Captain Shivam Singh (C) from the “Tornadoes” motorcycle acrobatic team of the Indian Armed Forces comes out ablaze after catching fire while riding his bike through a tunnel of fire during an attempt to break the Guinness Book of World Records in Bangalore on November 10, 2020. Shivam Singh broke the Guinness Book of World Records passing 127 m and escaped with minor injuries. (Photo by Manjunath Kiran/AFP Photo)

Miranda Kerr attends Carine Roitfeld & Stephen Gan celebration of the launch of CR Fashion Book N.5 in Paris, Tuesday, September 30, 2014. (Photo by Zacharie Scheurer/AP Photo)

Attendees arrive dressed as their favourite comic characters for the MCM London Comic Con, a convention to celebrate the culture of comic books and related art forms, in London, Britain, May 25, 2018. (Photo by Toby Melville/Reuters)