Visitors pose for pictures under blooming cherry blossoms at a botanical garden in Nanjing, capital of China’s eastern Jiangsu province on March 15, 2019. (Photo by Reuters/China Stringer Network)

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 Wednesday, July 20, 2016 photo, a child carries kettles through a flooded street with a woman in Tianjin, China. China says dozens of people have died or gone missing since Monday in massive floods across the country's north. (Photo by Chinatopix via AP Photo)

In a handout picture released by the Brit Awards English singer-songwriter Dua Lipa poses with her awards for Female Solo Artist and British Album at the BRIT Awards 2021 in London on May 11, 2021. (Photo by John Marshall/Handout via Reuters)

Actor Cornelius Obonya as Jedermann and actress Brigitte Hobmeier as Buhlschaft perform on stage during a dress rehearsal of Hugo von Hofmannsthal's drama “Jedermann” (Everyman) at Domplatz square in Salzburg, Austria, July 16, 2015. The play is directed by Julian Crouch and Brian Mertes and will premiere as part of the annual Salzburg cultural Festival on July 19, 2015. (Photo by Leonhard Foeger/Reuters)

Kumbuka, a male silverback gorilla sits next to the keeper's chalk board in his enclosure at London Zoo, Thursday, January 2, 2014. Home to more than 850 different species, zoo keepers welcomed in the New Year armed with clipboards as they made a note of every single animal. The compulsory annual count is required as part of ZSL London Zoo's zoo license, and every creature, from the tiny leaf cutter ants to the huge silverback gorilla is duly noted and accounted for. (Photo by Kirsty Wigglesworth/AP Photo)

A woman sports a rainbow painted hand at the annual PrideFest celebration at Civic Center Park in Denver, Colorado June 18, 2016. (Photo by Andy Cross/The Denver Post)

Schoolchildren play music to entertain and inspire people on their way home from work Tuesday, March 29, 2016 in Pyongyang, North Korea. North Korea has called a 70-day loyalty drive areas of a major congress of the ruling party scheduled for early May and everyone from students to coal miners have been mobilized nationwide to demonstrate their devotion to the leadership. (Photo by Eric Talmadge/AP Photo)