Now celebrating its 40th year, Nikon Small World is widely regarded as the leading forum to recognize proficiency and photographic excellence of photography taken under the microscope. To select the winners, competition judges analyzed entries from all over the world covering subjects ranging from chemical compounds to up-close-and-personal looks at biological specimens. The 2014 winners will be revealed on October 30th. In 2014, the competition received over 1,200 entries from more than 79 countries around the world. (Photo by Dr. Igor Robert Siwanowicz/Nikon Small World 2014)

In this June 17, 2014 photo, a North Korean man takes shelter in the rain next to long propaganda billboards in the town of Samjiyon in North Korea's Ryanggang province. The Associated Press was granted to embark on a weeklong road trip across North Korea to the country’s spiritual summit Mount Paektu. The trip was on North Korea's terms. An AP reporter and photographer couldn't interview ordinary people or wander off course, and government “minders” accompanied them the entire way. (Photo by David Guttenfelder/AP Photo)

A tunnel with electric switches are seen in Josip Broz Tito's underground secret bunker (ARK) in Konjic, October 16, 2014. In the early 1950s, Josip Broz Tito, the late leader of the former Yugoslavia, ordered the building of the secret bunker, located 900 feet (270 m) underground and near the Bosnian town of Konjic, to safeguard the country's ruling class in case of a nuclear attack. Construction at the complex, which had a cost equivalent price tag of $4.6 billion, continued until 1979, the year before Tito died. (Photo by Dado Ruvic/Reuters)

“Environmental Migrants: The Last Illusion” by photographer Alessandro Grassani, documents the life of people in Kenya, Mongolia and Bangladesh who migrate to escape environmental stresses to the city of their own countries in hopes for a better life. Here: Asia, Mongolia, March 27, 2011. A view of Ulaan Baator over the shoulder of a slumbering drunk. Alcoholism is a huge problem in the city, home to almost half of Mongolia's people. The capital's population has doubled in the past two years. High levels of unemployment and poverty await herders who abandon rural areas and arrive in the city, illiterate and untrained in any skills necessary for urban jobs. (Photo by Alessandro Grassani)

Russian Mi-28N from the Berkuty (Golden Eagles) helicopter display team fly in formation during the “Aviadarts” military aviation competition at the Dubrovichi range near Ryazan, Russia, August 2, 2015. The aircraft started dipping down due to back propeller failure and crashed, killing one of two pilots, according to a Reuters photographer and official representatives of the competition. The aviation contest is part of the International Army Games, which are held in Russia from the 1st till the 15th of August with participants from 17 countries, according to organizers. (Photo by Maxim Shemetov/Reuters)

Christian people crowd a bush taxi on a road 55km north of Bangui as they are on their way to the capital where they expect to sell some products on the market on January 19, 2014. Fresh fighting broke out in the strife-torn Central African Republic on the eve of an announcement on Sunday of the candidates seeking to become the new interim president. Sectarian violence has gripped the landlocked country after a March 2013 coup launched by the mostly Muslim Seleka rebels, and the UN has warned that the bloodshed could turn into genocide. (Photo by Eric Feferberg/AFP Photo)

Ko Min, 26, manually extracts oil from one of three 300 feet deep wells he works on in the Minhla township of the Magwe district October 27, 2013. Everyday, Ko Min makes around $30 extracting crude oil from three small wells after he bought rights to use them for close to $1000 from a farmer who owns the land. In Myanmar, an impoverished country rich with natural resources, people from poor communities find ways to supplement their income by exploiting such resources, such as the Minhla township, traditionally rich with oil, often using primitive and dangerous methods. (Photo by Damir Sagolj/Reuters)

Growing cities, overuse of fertilizers and factory wastewater have degraded China's water supplies to the extent that half the nation's rivers and lakes are severely polluted. China aims to spend $850 billion to improve filthy water supplies over the next decade, but even such huge outlays may do little to reverse damage caused by decades of pollution and overuse in Beijing's push for rapid economic growth. Photo: Fishermen row a boat in the algae-filled Chaohu Lake in Hefei, Anhui province, June 19, 2009. (Photo by Jianan Yu/Reuters)