A member of Four Paws International team carries a pelican to be taken out of Gaza, at a zoo in Khan Younis in the southern Gaza Strip August 23, 2016. Fifteen animals including a bengal tiger were removed from “the world’s worst zoo” in the Gaza town of Khan Younis as it was finally closed down. Animal welfare group, Four Paws International, will help bring most of the refugees to a zoo in Jordan, but the tiger will be taken to a refuge in South Africa. (Photo by Ibraheem Abu Mustafa/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)

Two sheep fight in a competition in Zhangjiakou, Hebei province, China on August 1, 2017. (Photo by Reuters/China Stringer Network)

In this June 20, 2015 photo, Niberta Galvez uses the bottom half of his shirt to collect coca leaves in Samugari, Peru. Coca farmers were among the locals who, in 1984, formed citizen militias to help the military beat back Shining Path rebels, reducing them to a small group of fewer than 500 who now are deeply involved in drug trafficking. (Photo by Rodrigo Abd/AP Photo)

Third place: the rear leg, claw and respiratory trachea of a louse (Haematopinus suis). (Photo by Frank Reiser/Nassau Community College/Nikon Small World Photomicrography 2021)

A demonstration on March 15, 1922 on Palace Roof, 57th Street and 7th Avenue, showing the shellproof steel jacket. Leo Krause wearing the jacket, which weighs 12 pounds. Shots used, 38 and 45 calibre, at close range. (Photo by Bettmann Archive)

Benfica's Portuguese forward Goncalo Ramos (R) vies with Portimonense's Japonese goalkeeper Kosuke Nakamura (L) during the Portuguese League football match between SL Benfica and Portimonense SC at Luz stadium in Lisbon on January 6, 2023. (Photo by Patrícia de Melo Moreira/AFP Photo)

Despite the mild 14°С shoppers and commuters battle against the wind and rain on Waterloo Bridge, London on December 28, 2022. (Photo by Alex Lentati/London News Pictures)