First place, The Beauty of Plants. “There are many stages of lotus growth on display at the Aquatic Gardens, but to come across twotwisted dancing stems of nelumbo nucifera was unexpected and quite magical”. (Photo by Kathleen Furey/The Guardian)

Student of Meiji University Yuki Hou licks a screen of Taste the TV (TTTV), a prototype lickable TV screen that can imitate the flavours of various foods, during its demonstration at the university in Tokyo, Japan, December 22, 2021. (Photo by Kim Kyung-Hoon/Reuters)

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)

Emily Hicks (not pictured) of Charleston holds her dog Murphy along the waterfront ahead of the arrival of Hurricane Dorian in Charleston, South Carolina, U.S., September 4, 2019. (Photo by Randall Hill/Reuters)

A vendor (C) serves customers at a vegetable market as a commuter train passes in Jakarta October 2, 2015. Indonesia's high annual inflation rate cooled in September and should drop more by year-end, but it likely will be 2016 before the central bank can cut interest rates to help an economy growing at its slowest pace in six years. (Photo by Reuters/Beawiharta)

People gather on a hill near the Chopin Airport to watch aeroplanes taking off, in Warsaw, Poland, Sunday, September 9, 2018. (Photo by Alik Keplicz/AP Photo)

The HFR x LeBron 16 shoe is unveiled at the Harlem Fashion Row show and awards ceremony before the start of New York Fashion Week, Tuesday, September 4, 2018. (Photo by Diane Bondareff/AP Photo)

Children play on top of an abandoned car at the “Aguerridos Liberator” shanty town in Caracas, Venezuela, Thursday, May 9, 2019. (Photo by Rodrigo Abd/AP Photo)