American rapper Megan Jovon Ruth Pete, known professionally as Megan Thee Stallion promotes a new music video with a topless photo in the first decade of September 2022. (Photo by theestallion/Instagram)

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)

Lightning over Mow Cop Castle which is a folly at Mow Cop in the civil parish of Odd Rode, Cheshire, UK on August 13, 2020, as thunderstorms continue during the current heatwave. (Photo by Lee Scally/Bav Media)

A hungry cow smiles for the camera in Salzburg, Austria. One of a series of funny animal mugshots taken by Chanel Cartell and Stevo Dirnberger during their travels around the globe. (Photo by Chanel Cartell/Stevo Dirnberger/Rex Features/Shutterstock)

A hogweed bonking beetle and yellow dung fly in a stalk standoff (the fly gave in), in Burley-in-Wharfedale, Yorkshire, England. (Photo by Rebecca Cole/Alamy Stock Photo)

A praying mantis, a huddle of butterflies, Galician horses and an alpine sunset are the winners of this year’s European Environment Agency’s “Rediscover Nature” photo competition. Here: Nature on My Doorstep, finalist. I Want That Pomerade Grain by Biagio Alberto Scalia, taken in national park of Circeo, Latina, Italy. (Photo by Biagio Alberto Scalia/REDISCOVER Nature/EEA)

The tempestuous stellar nursery called the Carina Nebula, located 7,500 light-years away from Earth in the southern constellation Carina. (Photo by Reuters/NASA)

The Kung Fu King was spotted in Botswana, Africa, as the two giraffes fought for dominance. Thomas Retterath, 53, says hes often seen the mammals fight, but they usually do it by banging their heads against each others bodies.Here: A giraffe lands a karate kick on a rival on the plains of Botswana. (Photo by Thomas Retterath/Caters News)