A surfer is seen during sunset at Pacifica State Beach in Pacifica, California, USA on August 6, 2023. (Photo by Tayfun Coskun/Anadolu Agency via Getty Images)

A person dressed as a zombie mermaid poses for a photo as she interacts with patrons at the Haunted Hotel Takeover Halloween party at hotel Ziggy in West Hollywood, California, U.S., October 29, 2022. (Photo by Mario Anzuoni/Reuters)

American rapper Tyler, the Creator performs at the Coachella Stage during the 2024 Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival at Empire Polo Club on April 20, 2024 in Indio, California. (Photo by Frazer Harrison/Getty Images for Coachella)

Actor Will Smith attends the Los Angeles Premiere of Columbia Pictures' “Bad Boys: Ride Or Die” at the TCL Chinese Theater on May 30, 2024 in Hollywood, California. (Photo by Eric Charbonneau/Getty Images for Sony 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)

In this Monday, March 28, 2016 photo, trainer Catrina Bloomquist works with Nav, an 11-year-old rescued California sea lion, as part of a new exhibit opening at the Georgia Aquarium. The aquarium is in the midst of celebrating its tenth anniversary, and as part of the festivities, patrons will be introduced to the newest faces in Atlanta, a group of rescued California sea lions. (Photo by David Goldman/AP Photo)

An undercover police officer, who had been marching with anti-police demonstrators, aims his gun at protesters after some in the crowd attacked him and his partner in Oakland, California December 10, 2014. Police said more than 100 demonstrators marched in Berkeley, California, which has a history of social activism. Under cloudy skies, turnout was smaller than earlier in the week, when demonstrators in the area threw rocks at police and shut down a major freeway. (Photo by Noah Berger/Reuters)

In this October 15, 2014 file photo, Katsu Nakamura, sky division manager for Yamaha USA, moves the RMax unmanned helicopter into position before a demonstration of its aerial application capabilities at the University of California, Davis' Oakville Station test vineyard in Oakville, Calif. Researchers at UC Davis have been studying the effectiveness of the drone's ability for spraying pest control and nutritional materials on the test vineyard in California's Napa Valley. (Photo by Rich Pedroncelli/AP Photo)