Natalie Burgener drops the bar behind her head while attempting to snatch 98 kilograms during the 2012 U.S. Olympic Team Trials for Women's Weightlifting on March 4, 2012 in Columbus, Ohio. (Photo by Jamie Sabau/Getty Images)

Indian Muslim children hold anti-US placards as they participate in a protest meeting against the film “Innocence of Muslims” in Kolkata on October 5, 2012. A low-budget, US-produced “Innocence of Muslims” movie has incited a wave of bloody anti-US violence in Libya, Egypt, Sudan, Tunisia, Yemen and in several other countries across the Muslim world. (Photo by Dibyangshu Sarkar/AFP/AFP Photo)

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 masked protester talks to a soldier during clashes after the funeral of Brig. Gen. Wissam al-Hassan October 21, 2012. Lebanese soldiers fired guns and tear gas to push back hundreds of protesters who broke through a police cordon and tried to storm the government headquarters in Beirut. (Photo by Hussein Malla/Associated Press)

Life-size sеx dolls are displayed during the 2016 AVN Adult Entertainment Expo at the Hard Rock Hotel & Casino on January 20, 2016 in Las Vegas, United States. (Photo by Gabe Ginsberg/FilmMagic)

A great tit eats food from the top of a photographer's hat as the press wait for politicians on Downing Street on December 16, 2019 in London, England. The UK's Prime Minister is set to hold a mini Cabinet reshuffle to replace outgoing ministers following last week's general election victory. (Photo by Leon Neal/Getty Images)

A dog wearing a mask is seen on a street following an outbreak of the novel coronavirus disease (COVID-19), in Shanghai, China on March 22, 2020. (Photo by Aly Song/Reuters)

Jude Hajjaj, carries her cat near a picture of her cat painted on the wall by her father Osama Hajjaj, who teams up with his neighbours in creating works of art at their roof during the curfew imposed by the Jordanian government amid concerns over the spread of the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) in Amman, Jordan, May 10, 2020. (Photo by Muhammad Hamed/Reuters)