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)

Creations by fashion designer Guo Pei, one of China's leading couture artists, are seen on display during the “Guo Pei: Fashioning Imagination” exhibition at the M+ art museum in Hong Kong on September 17, 2024. (Photo by Peter Parks/AFP Photo)

American rapper Amala Ratna Zandile Dlamini, known professionally as Doja Cat, says “alright” before declaring she's quitting music in the last decade of March 2022. (Photo by dojacat/Instagram)

This image released by Metro Goldwyn Mayer Pictures shows Ana de Armas in a scene from “No Time To Die”. (Photo by Nicola Dove/Metro Goldwyn Mayer Pictures via AP Photo)

After being shunned for years, American actress Demi Moore is back in horror movie The Substance, which has stunned viewers with its shocking blood, gore and nudity. (Photo by Interview Magazine's September 2024)

Ambience backstage and frontstagen at the Y Project fashion show during the Spring Summer 2024 Collections in Paris, France on October 1 30 2023. (Photo by Jonas Gustavsson for The Washington Post)

American media personality and singer Dixie D'Amelio, wearing Gucci, attends the 2025 LACMA Art+Film Gala, Presented By Gucci at Los Angeles County Museum of Art on November 01, 2025 in Los Angeles, California. (Photo by Amy Sussman/Getty Images for LACMA)

Cuban-American singer Camila Cabello arrives at iHeartRadio's Z100 Jingle Ball 2019 at Madison Square Garden on December 13, 2019 in New York City. (Photo by Michael Loccisano/Getty Images)