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)

A man prays to mourn victims of the March 11, 2011, earthquake and tsunami in front of a ship brought ashore by the disaster in Kesennuma, Miyagi Prefecture, Japan. (Photo by Kyodo via Reuters)

A pine marten – one of a few wild mammals doing well in Britain (although they number just 3,700). A fifth of the country’s wild mammals are at high risk of extinction, research shows. (Photo by Maurice Flynn/The Mammal Society)

In this September 30, 2013 photo, farmers wait for customers next to their 1950s Chevrolet loaded with garlic for sale at the 114th Street Market on the outskirts of Havana, Cuba. The market s bustle is a result of economic reforms begun in 2010 by President Raul Castro, which includes relaxing rules on private farming. (Photo by Ramon Espinosa/AP Photo)

American media personality and socialite Kim Kardashian shared photos from her lavish trip to Turks and Caicos in the second decade of January 2024. Kim posed for selfies in the revealing look. (Photo by Kim Kardashian/Instagram)

Palestinian girls struggle as they get donated food at a distribution center in Khan Younis, Gaza Strip, on Friday, December 6, 2024. (Photo by Abdel Kareem Hana/AP Photo)

Keen diver Yusuke Fukami fulfilled a personal dream by snapping a cartoon-like Costasiella sea slug while in Bali in the last decade of December 2024. (Photo by Yusuke Fukami/South West News Service)

Seals on Wednesday, November 12, 2025 on the Farne Islands during the annual census of pup numbers at one of England's largest grey seal colonies. The islands, off the Northumberland coast, is an important haven for thousands of seabirds and hundreds of adult seals, and are looked after by the National Trust. (Photo by Owen Humphreys/PA Wire)