A model rehearses with a fabric face mask on, designed by Zhou Li for her Autumn/Winter 2020 collection show, during China Fashion Week in Beijing, following the novel coronavirus disease (COVID-19) outbreak, China on May 3, 2020. (Photo by Tingshu Wang/Reuters)

Residents (R to L) Luiza, Janubie, Leiticia and Lucas sit beneath an overpass near their houses in an impoverished area in the unpacified Complexo da Mare slum complex, one of the largest “favela” complexes in Rio, on March 18, 2014 in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. (Photo by Mario Tama/Getty Images)

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)

A pine marten – one of a few wild mammals doing well in Britain (although they number just 3,700). A fifth of the country’s wild mammals are at high risk of extinction, research shows. (Photo by Maurice Flynn/The Mammal Society)

Seals on Wednesday, November 12, 2025 on the Farne Islands during the annual census of pup numbers at one of England's largest grey seal colonies. The islands, off the Northumberland coast, is an important haven for thousands of seabirds and hundreds of adult seals, and are looked after by the National Trust. (Photo by Owen Humphreys/PA Wire)

Actress Lily Collins is seen filming on set of series 2 of “Emily In Paris” on May 4, 2021 in Saint-Jean-Cap-Ferrat, France. (Photo by Arnold Jerocki/GC Images)

Rowdy Alexander watches from atop his horse as a hillside burns on the Northern Cheyenne Indian Reservation, Wednesday, August 11, 2021, near Lame Deer, Mont. The Richard Spring fire was threatening hundreds of homes as it burned across the reservation. (Photo by Matthew Brown/AP Photo)

Dancers from the Motionhouse company surprised London, United Kingdom passersby on September 5, 2021 with a preview of “Nobody”, which has its premiere at Sadler’s Wells on September 22. (Photo by Vicki Couchman/The Times)