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)

American actress and model Bella Thorne at the PATRON EL ALTO VIP Lounge at NYLON House in the Desert, ,Palm Springs, California on April 14, 2023. (Photo by Chelsea Lauren/Rex Features/Shutterstock)

A man stands next to a horsecart laden with oil drums on a street in Lahore on September 27, 2020. (Photo by Arif Ali/AFP Photo)

Charlene Wittstock (L) and Prince Albert II of Monaco (R) attend the singles Final match between Rafael Nadal of Spain and Roger Federer of Switzerland on day nine of the Monte Carlo Masters Series tennis tournament. (Photo by Pascal Le Segretain/Getty Images). 2008

A vendor drinks water as she waits for customers at a roadside flower market in Ahmedabad, India, February 8, 2017. (Photo by Amit Dave/Reuters)

College students take shelter at a traffic point as a man paddles his rickshaw through a flooded road during heavy rain in Guwahati, India, June 13, 2017. (Photo by Anuwar Hazarika/Reuters)

Racegoers react as they leave after the second day of the Grand National meeting at Aintree, northern England April 5, 2013. (Photo by Nigel Roddis/Reuters)

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P.S. All pictures are presented in high resolution. To see Hi-Res images – just TWICE click on any picture. In other words, click small picture – opens the BIG picture. Click BIG picture – opens VERY BIG picture (if available; this principle works anywhere on the site AvaxNews)