When a French politician remarked that a monument should be raised in honour of American independence at a dinner party in 1865 he probably didn't imagine that the result would become an international icon of freedom. ...

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)

In this Friday, December 5, 2014 photo, Iranian volunteer Asal Moghaddam plays with dogs at the Vafa Animal Shelter in the city of Hashtgerd 43 miles (73 kilometers) west of the capital Tehran, Iran. More than 500 dogs find care and affection at the Vafa Animal Shelter, which was established through an endowment in 2004 and is the country’s only licensed animal refuge. (Photo by Vahid Salemi/AP Photo)

A diver wearing a Santa Claus costume feeds a sunfish to attract visitors at the Hakkeijima Sea Paradise aquarium in Yokohama, suburban Tokyo on December 17, 2014. Christmas attractions will be held till Christmas Day. (Photo by Yoshikazu Tsuno/AFP Photo)

In this September 11, 2014 photo, villagers climb down the side of a hill used earlier as a dumping ground of asbestos waste on Roro hills in Roro, India. An asbestos mine, abandoned nearly three decades ago still affects the people around it and 18 along with Jema were diagnosed with asbestosis in 2012. Tens of thousands more, some former mine workers, remain untested and at risk. (Photo by Saurabh Das/AP Photo)

The Enigma coding machine used by the Germans in WWII on display at Bletchley Park National Code Centre, November 25, 2004 in Bletchley, England. (Photo by Ian Waldie/Getty Images)

An American flag flutters on a young tree stripped of bark after a massive tornado passed through the town killing at least 116 people May 24, 2011 in Joplin, Missouri. The tornado that ripped through the town of about 50,000 people May 22, is being called the deadliest single tornado in the U.S. in 60 years. (Photo by Julie Denesha/Getty Images)

A demonstrator wears a message on a t-shirt in Tahrir Square on May 27, 2011 in Cairo, Egypt. The ruling Supreme Council of the Armed Forces said that there would be no use of violence against protests dubbed “the Second Revolution of Anger” taking place in Cairo and other cities in Egypt. (Photo by Peter Macdiarmid/Getty Images)