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 man holds a tree branch and marches by burning tires during a protest against insecurity, on August 7, 2023, near the Prime Minister's official house in Port-au-Prince, Haiti. Some 300 women and minors were kidnapped in Haiti by criminal gangs in the first half of this year, UNICEF said Monday, warning of a disturbing rise in abductions that leave “deep physical and psychological scars”. The surge in abductions threatens “both the people of Haiti and those who have come to help”. (Photo by Richard Pierrin/AFP Photo)

A student of the "Escola de Papai Noel do Brasil" (Brazil's school of Santa Claus) wears his hat before lessons in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, October 27, 2015. The school, which was founded since 1993, prepare men to represent Santa Claus during the Christmas season. Lessons include singing, physical activity, how to dress and how to care for their beard. (Photo by Pilar Olivares/Reuters)

Andrea Abarca, (C) leads an aerobics class in Los Guidos de Desamparados July 23, 2015. More than 300 women participated in a physical health program organized by Abarca, which aims to combat obesity and sedentary behavior in poor women living in a slum. The National Nutrition Survey shows that the Costa Rican population has 62.4 percent of adult men who are obese, while among women the percentage was 77.3, according to local media. (Photo by Juan Carlos Ulate/Reuters)

Miranda Kerr attends Carine Roitfeld & Stephen Gan celebration of the launch of CR Fashion Book N.5 in Paris, Tuesday, September 30, 2014. (Photo by Zacharie Scheurer/AP Photo)

Attendees arrive dressed as their favourite comic characters for the MCM London Comic Con, a convention to celebrate the culture of comic books and related art forms, in London, Britain, May 25, 2018. (Photo by Toby Melville/Reuters)

A guest arrives outside the Anna Sui show at the Strand Rare Book Room in New York on February 10, 2024. (Photo by Jeenah Moon for The Washington Post)