A woman poses for a photo in front of the Wagner Group military vehicle on June 24, 2023 in Rostov-on-Don, Russia. (Photo by Feodor Larin/Anadolu Agency via Getty Images)

Women react after a deadly blaze in the early hours of the morning, in Johannesburg, South Africa on August 31, 2023. (Photo by Shiraaz Mohamed/Reuters)

A displaced Palestinian plays on a swing at the beach, amid the ongoing conflict between Israel and the Palestinian Islamist group Hamas, in Rafah in the southern Gaza Strip on January 31, 2024. (Photo by Mohammed Salem/Reuters)

Txai Suruí, Amazonian Activist, during the opening night of Web Summit Rio 2023 at Riocentro in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. (Photo By Stephen McCarthy/Sportsfile for Web Summit Rio via Getty Images)

Fishermen carry a tuna fish to the market in Mogadishu, Somalia, April 2, 2025. (Photo by Farah Abdi Warsameh/AP Photo)

Ravers dance around Love Mobiles during the 22nd edition of the Lake Parade in Geneva, Switzerland, 20 July 2024. (Photo by Salvatore Di Nolfi/EPA/EFE)

Harris & Ewing Inc. photographed people, events, and architecture, particularly in Washington, D.C., during the period 1905-1945. Photo: Tests of Curtiss Palne for Army, Single Control. Created by Harris & Ewing. Published in 1912.

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)