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)

Models wait backstage before the GUAXIN Autumn/Winter 2024 collection show by Chunlin Yang, during China Fashion Week in Beijing, China on March 29, 2024. (Photo by Tingshu Wang/Reuters)

Tautumeitas from Latvia performs the song “Bur Man Laimi” during the dress rehearsal for the second semi-final of the 69th Eurovision Song Contest, in Basel, Switzerland, Wednesday, May 14, 2025. (Photo by Martin Meissner/AP Photo)

The American skier Lindsey Vonn celebrates winning the women’s downhill race in the FIS Alpine Ski World Cup on December 12, 2025. She is joined on the podium by Moritz, the competition’s official mascot, named after the Swiss resort in which it is held. (Photo by Denis Balibouse/Reuters)

A worker manually changes the direction of the bonde, the typical tram line in Santa Teresa neighborhood, using a rope in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, September 9, 2015. The Santa Teresa bonde, called “Bondinho” in Portuguese, is running with passengers as a part of a test period, after the service was suspended in 2011 following an accident that killed six people, according to residents. (Photo by Pilar Olivares/Reuters)

Stay Puft Marshmallow Man is seen on the concourse at Waterloo Station, July 11, 2016, in London. Ghostbusters take over Waterloo Station as Stay Puft Marshmallow Man smashes through the concourse during the morning rush-hour. (Photo by Gareth Cattermole/Getty Images)

One of a members of the Franciscan Action Network and immigration rights activists is arrested during a demonstration calling for the end of immigrant detention on Capitol Hill in Washington, U.S., July 18, 2019. (Photo by Joshua Roberts/Reuters)

Montreal Canadiens defenseman Arber Xhekaj (72) fights with Ottawa Senators forward Mark Kastelic (47) during the first period at the Bell Centre in Montreal, Quebec on October 4, 2022. (Photo by Eric Bolte/USA TODAY Sports)