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)

A local boy plays football on Iracema Beach on June 11, 2014 in Fortaleza, Brazil. (Photo by Robert Cianflone/Getty Images)

Culinary Specialist 2nd Class Jaqueline Rodriguez subdues a simulated suspect after being sprayed with oleoresin capsicum (OC) spray during security training aboard the amphibious dock landing ship USS Comstock (LSD 45). (U.S. Navy photo by Mass Communication Specialist 2nd Class Joseph M. Buliavac/Released). May 10, 2011

Singer Rihanna prepares for a photoshoot with photographer Annie Leibovitz in Havana, Cuba, May 28, 2015. (Photo by Reuters/Stringer)

Show promoters for Motolite batteries sit on a jeepney as they pose for photographers during the Manila International Auto show in Pasay, Metro Manila, Philippines on April 4, 2013. (Photo by Erik De Castro/Reuters)

Swimmers known as the Lido Ladies pose by the pool during sunrise at Charlton Lido in Hornfair Park, London on December 2, 2020, on its first day of reopening after the second national lockdown ended and England enters a strengthened tiered system of regional coronavirus restrictions. (Photo by Victoria Jones/PA Images via Getty Images)

Visitors look at photographs in the exhibition “Lisette Model Street Life e Horst P. Horst Syle and Glamour” at the art gallery “Camera – Centro Italiano per la fotografia” in Turin, Italy, 27 April 2021. Culture venues reopened to the public as several Italian region are back to COVID-19 yellow zone in the country's tier system. (Photo by Alessandro di Marco/EPA/EFE)

A man feeds langur monkeys during a lockdown amid the Covid-19 coronavirus pandemic in Pushkar on April 28, 2021. (Photo by Himanshu Sharma/AFP Photo)