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)

An Iraqi camel herder poses in the desert of Samawa in Iraq's southern province of al-Muthanna on January 27, 2024. (Photo by Hussein Faleh/AFP Photo)

Belgian Wendy Adriaens, the founder of De Passiehoeve, an animal rescue farm where animals support people with autism, depression, anxiety, or drug problems, offers a hug to Blondie, a 6-year-old female ostrich at Passiehoeve farm, in Kalmthout, Belgium on March 8, 2024. (Photo by Yves Herman/Reuters)

British Holidaymakers seen partying partying in Punta Bella main Street in Magaluf, a major holiday resort on the Spanish island of Majorca this summer, July 2017. (Photo by Splash News and Pictures)

A participant takes part in a “Zombie Walk” parade in Kiev, Ukraine on October 27, 2018. (Photo by Gleb Garanich/Reuters)

“Sociomobile” by Jasleen Kaur goes on view as part of the 2024 Turner Prize exhibition at TATE Britain on September 24, 2024 in London, England. This year marks the 40th anniversary of the Turner Prize, and it returns to Tate Britain for the first time since 2018. The prestigious award is presented annually to a British artist who has delivered an exceptional exhibition or presentation of their work. The four artists shortlisted for the 2024 Turner Prize are Pio Abad, Claudette Johnson, Jasleen Kaur, and Delaine Le Bas. (Photo by Tristan Fewings/Getty Images)

Visitors pass an exhibit for Sculpture by the Sea, along the coastal walk from Bondi to Tamarama in Sydney, Australia on October 24, 2025. The annual event is Australia’s largest annual outdoor sculpture exhibition. (Photo by Xinhua News Agency/Rex Features/Shutterstock)

Girls dressed in Soviet WWII uniforms of traffic control officers as Russian President Vladiimir Putin lays a wreath in the Hall of Military Glory of the Mamayev Kurgan memorial complex commemorating the Battle of Stalingrad to mark the 75th anniversary of the victory in the battle in Volgograd, Russia on February 2, 2018. The battle between Nazi troops and the Soviet Army was a major pivotal moment in the Great Patriotic War and World War II. (Photo by Mikhail Metzel/TASS via Getty Images)