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)

Canadian singer Avril Lavigne leaves little to the imagination wearing a see-through top as she and boyfriend Mod Sun arrive at a friend's house in Calabasas, CA. with Avril's dog on July 14, 2021. (Photo by Backgrid USA)

Former UK Love Island contestant Megan Barton-Hanson teams up with British fashion model Lottie Moss, half-sister of model Kate Moss for this sizzling new shoot in the middle of July 2021. (Photo by AARONAMOUS)

US actor Ben Affleck and US actress and singer Jennifer Lopez arrive for the screening of the film “The Last Duel” presented out of competition on September 10, 2021 during the 78th Venice Film Festival at Venice Lido. (Photo by Yara Nardi/Reuters)

A couple walks past a burning roadblock set up to protest against a recent kidnapping and shooting in the Petionville neighborhood of Port-au-Prince, Haiti on November 1, 2021. (Photo by Adrees Latif/Reuters)

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)

American rapper Diamonté Quiava Valentin Harper, known professionally as Saweetie attends the Billboard Women in Music Awards at YouTube Theater in Inglewood, California, U.S., March 2, 2022. (Photo by Mario Anzuoni/Reuters)