Jakub Przygonski at the stage 1 of Dakar Rally, Pisco, Peru on January 7, 2019. (Photo by Kin Marcin/Red Bull Content Pool)

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 veterinarian kisses an 8-month-old cat, wearing a prosthetic two-wheel device, at a veterinary hospital in Chongqing municipality, March 16, 2015. The cat's rear legs lost the abilty to walk after falling from the ninth to fifth floor of a building last November, its since undergone four major surgeries which included removing parts of its organs, local media reported. (Photo by Reuters/China Daily)

A worker lifts up tiles during a bodybuilding contest for tile factory workers as part of celebrating Indonesia Independence day at Jatiwangi village in Majalengka, Indonesia West Java province, August 11, 2017. Indonesia Independence day is on August 17, 2017. (Photo by Reuters/Beawiharta)

One happy reveller smiled and gave a thumbs up to the camera in Newcastle, United Kingdom after receiving their A Level results on Tuesday, August 10, 2021. Students hit the town across the country, downing cocktails and letting their hair down after two years of studying during the pandemic. (Photo by Newcastle New Projects)

Sinterklaas (R) a legendary figure based on Saint Nicholas, Christian patron saint of children, and page Sooty Piet have a video call with children in Dodewaard, the Netherlands, 01 December 2021. The Christian feast of Saint Nicholas is celebrated annually with the giving of gifts on the eve of 05 December in The Netherlands. (Photo by Remko de Waal/EPA/EFE/Rex Features/Shutterstock)

Swimmers in fancy dress take part in a Christmas Day dip at Exmouth, Devon, England, Saturday, December 25, 2021. (Photo by Ben Birchall/PA Wire via AP Photo)

Young Haitian migrants hang out in the Batey La Lima community, an impoverished community surrounded by a massive sugarcane plantation in the coastal city of La Romana, Dominican Republic, Wednesday, November 17, 2021. As the rest of the world closes its doors to Haitian migrants, the country that shares an island with Haiti also is cracking down in a way that human rights activists say hasn’t been seen in decades. (Photo by Matias Delacroix/AP Photo)