Now celebrating its 40th year, Nikon Small World is widely regarded as the leading forum to recognize proficiency and photographic excellence of photography taken under the microscope. To select the winners, competition judges analyzed entries from all over the world covering subjects ranging from chemical compounds to up-close-and-personal looks at biological specimens. The 2014 winners will be revealed on October 30th. In 2014, the competition received over 1,200 entries from more than 79 countries around the world. (Photo by Dr. Igor Robert Siwanowicz/Nikon Small World 2014)

In this January 25, 2013 photo, snake handler Saintilus Resilus holds a snake in front of his lips as he trains the snake to recognize his smell as he prepares for his street performances during the pre-Lenten Carnival season, at his home in Petionville, Haiti. Resilus sees himself as something of a performance artist, showing off with snakes and other animals that Haitians don't see every day, earning tips from impromptu audiences. (Photo by Dieu Nalio Chery/AP Photo via Matt Dayhoff)

A woman holds a picture as people pray during a funeral, following a mass shooting at a day care centre, at Wat Rat Samakee, in the town of Uthai Sawan, in the province of Nong Bua Lam Phu, Thailand on October 9, 2022. (Photo by Jorge Silva/Reuters)

A Hindu devotee takes a holy bath on the banks of the Bagmati River on the occasion of Rishi Panchami at the end of the three-day long Teej Festival, in which Hindu women fast during the day and pray for the long lives for their husbands, in Kathmandu on September 1, 2022. (Photo by Prakash Mathema/AFP Photo)

Supporters react as U.S. President Donald Trump walks from Marine One to the White House in Washington, U.S., October 3, 2019. (Photo by Tom Brenner/Reuters)

National Police members disinfect Venezuelan citizens returning to the country from Colombia, as a preventive measure against the spread of the coronavirus –COVID19- at the Simon Boliviar International Bridge, in Cucuta, Colombia-Venezuela border, on April 4, 2020. Since the first case of COVID-19 was detected last March 6, Colombia has reported 1,406 people infected and 32 dead. (Photo by Schneyder Mendoza/AFP Photo)

An injured Palestinian demonstrator is helped during a protest against the planned evictions of Palestinian families in the Sheikh Jarrah neighborhood of east Jerusalem, Saturday, May 8, 2021. (Photo by Oded Balilty/AP Photo)

A black gibbon is seen in a cage before being released into the wild by Indonesian nature conservation agency (BKSDA) in Jantho forest, Aceh province on August 26, 2021. (Photo by Chaideer Mahyuddin/AFP Photo)