Sichuan Opera performer Wu Yonghong, 26 years, of the Jinyuan Opera Company performs for villagers at the Dongyue Temple on May 2, 2016 in Cangshan, Sichuan province, China. Sichuan opera is a vibrant, centuries-old tradition that showcases the joys and challenges of daily life in rural China with tales of love, tradition, and family honor. Photo by Kevin Frayer/Getty Images)

Members of the China Disabled Peoples Performing Art Troupe perform “My Dream” at Jorge Eliecer Gaitan Theater in Bogota on August 30, 2017. China Disabled People's Performing Art Troupe Company composed of artists with some hearing, mental, motor, visual or speech disabilities, was founded in 1987 and is currently Honorary and Goodwill Ambassadors of Unesco for its great example of inclusion. (Photo by John Vizcaino/AFP Photo)

Heads of love dolls are seen on the shelf on March 9, 2017 in Tokyo, Japan. Japan's oldest and largest “love doll” maker Orient Industry, has been producing silicone love dolls since 1977, and has seen there is a trend for intimate relationships with silicone dolls in Japan. (Photo by Taro Karibe/Getty Images)

Bystanders look at MV Wakashio bulk carrier that had run aground and from which oil is leaking near Blue Bay Marine Park in south-east Mauritius on August 6, 2020. The carrier, belonging to a Japanese company but Panamanian-flagged, ran aground on July 25 and its crew was evacuated safely. The ship was empty at the time but was carrying 200 tonnes of diesel and 3,800 tonnes of bunker fuel, according to the local press. (Photo by Dev Ramkhelawon/L'Express Maurice/AFP Photo)

The world's most advanced humanoid shaped robot “Ameca” (R) gives a wink to visitor at Etisalat section at the Gulf Information Technology Exhibition (GITEX) Global 2022 in the Gulf emirate of Dubai, United Arab Emirates, 13 October 2022. The 42nd edition of the annual GITEX Global runs till 14 October 2022 and showcases around 5000 of IT companies from 90 countries. (Photo by Ali Haider/EPA/EFE)

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)

An Armatix employee holds a “smart gun” by the company at the Armatix headquarters in Munich May 14, 2014. The gun is implanted with an electronic chip that allows it to be fired only if the shooter is wearing a watch that communicates with it through a radio signal. If the gun is moved more than 10 inches (25 cm) from the watch, it will not fire. A Maryland gun shop owner has dropped his plan to be the first in the United States to sell the so-called “smart gun” after a backlash that included death threats. (Photo by Michael Dalder/Reuters)

A general view shows the Krasnoyarsk hydro-electric power station on the Yenisei River near the Siberian city of Krasnoyarsk, Russia, January 13, 2016. The power plant, owned by EuroSibEnergo company, part of En+ Group, with a generating capacity of 6,000 megawatt (MW), has a ferro-concrete dam 124-metres high and 1065-metres long and is the second largest Russian hydroelectric power station. About 85% of the energy generated is intended for the Rusal Krasnoyarsk aluminium smelter, according to representatives of the power station. (Photo by Ilya Naymushin/Reuters)