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 cat jumps from a shelf to catch a light beam at the “Kis-Kis” Cat Cafe in the Siberian city of Krasnoyarsk, Russia, July 6, 2015. A local animals rights group founded the shelter for dozen of homeless cats and combined it with the cafe, where visitors can communicate with animals for hourly fee in addition to drinks, table games, books and WI-FI. (Photo by Ilya Naymushin/Reuters)

In this Feb. 17, 2017 photo, surfers walk to La Pampilla beach in Lima, Peru. Night surfing apparently came about in Lima because of a dispute with the capital municipality that in 2015 increased the width of a road that runs along the coast. The surfers protested the construction for months by camping on the asphalted beach area, but in the end the municipality prevailed, with support from the police. At the end of 2016, perhaps to win over the surfers, Lima's mayor set up beach lights that allows for night surfing. (Photo by Rodrigo Abd/AP Photo)

Traffic lights feature illustrations of a homosexual couple in downtown Frankfurt Main, Germany, 18 July 2019. An annual gay pride parade will take place on 20 July 2019 in Frankfurt to commemorate Christopher Street Day (CSD). The event commemorates the riots that erupted following a police raid in 1969 at a gay bar on Christopher Street in Greenwich Village, New York City. (Photo by Armando Babani/EPA/EFE)

Neil Zeller's snaps were taken across Canada, where he photographs the northern lights dancing across a dark night sky. In one stunning shot, Zeller, 42, even manages to capture a flash of lightning beneath a storm cell while an aurora gives off a magnificent green glow. The photographer, from Calgary, Alberta, describes himself as a night person, and became interested in night photography about 10 years ago. (Photo by Neil Zeller/Caters News)

Breath of an Arctic fox by Marco Gaiotti, Italy. Marco was watching this little Arctic fox as it incessantly called another nearby. Gradually he noticed the fox’s wet breath was quickly freezing in the air after each call. It was late winter in Spitsbergen, Svalbard, and the air was -35C (-31F). Photographing Arctic foxes is often frustrating, as they are normally running around fast in search of food, but this one was very relaxed and let Marco get close enough to focus on it, with the light glowing perfectly in the background. (Photo by Marco Gaiotti/Wildlife Photographer of the Year 2021)

Natalie Duran, wearing a mask and dressed as Catwoman, climbs on street lights in SoHo as the city continues Phase 4 of re-opening following restrictions imposed to slow the spread of coronavirus on July 25, 2020 in New York City. The fourth phase allows outdoor arts and entertainment, sporting events without fans and media production. (Photo by Alexi Rosenfeld/Getty Images)

A handout photo made available by TeideLab shows an image composed of 200 pictures that shows the lightning activity between 3 am and 7am during a storm in Izana, Tenerife, Canary Islands, Spain, 27 October 2019. Over 2,000 lighting strikes fell mostly over Tenerife island last 26 October during a strong storm. (Photo by Daniel López/EPA/EFE/TeideLab)