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)

Steven Busulwa, an animal keeper, runs away from a charging rhino at the Uganda Wildlife Conservation Education Center (UWEC) amid the lockdown as part of the measures taken to prevent the spread of the coronavirus disease (COVID-19), within Wakiso district, in Entebbe, Uganda on April 20, 2020. (Photo by Abubaker Lubowa/Reuters)

A man carrying a woman wades through a flooded road following heavy rainfall in Zhengzhou, Henan province, July 21, 2021. At least 25 people have died in China's flood-stricken central province of Henan, a dozen of them in a subway line in its capital that was drenched by what weather officials called the heaviest rains for 1,000 years. (Photo by China Daily via Reuters)

A brushtail possum whose ears and legs have been burnt from recent bushfires sits in a cage before being transported to a wildlife hospital, in Batemans Bay, South of Sydney, Australia, 14 January 2020. (Photo by Steven Saphore/EPA/EFE)

A Vietnamese woman collects dried incense sticks at a courtyard in Quang Phu Cau village on the outskirts of Hanoi on January 9, 2020 ahead of the upcoming Lunar New Year celebrations, referred to in Vietnam as Tet. (Photo by Manan Vatsyayana/AFP Photo)

An octopus is filmed by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration ship Okeanos Explorer and its robotic sub. (Photo by National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration)

Recreation time for the seminarists at St. Ignatius Loyala shrine at Azpeitia, Gipuzkoa (Guipúzcoa) in Spain. (Photo by Evans/Getty Images). 1955

For many of us, simply bending over to touch our toes can be a difficult. But it's not a problem for the world's bendiest woman Julia Günthel aka Zlata (27). Russian-born Zlata can twist herself like a snake into the most extreme poses imaginable – and has broken numerous world records for her flexibility. The former gymnast, who is 5ft 8in, is so flexible she can cram herself into a 50cm squared box. Photo: Russian-born Zlata is pictured in Fifties style glam while still managing to bend herself in half. (Photo by Barcroft Media)