Papier-mache sculptures, also known as “ninots”, burn during the “Nit de la Crema” (Fire Night) of the Fallas Festival in Valencia, eastern Spain, 19 March 2024. Fallas is a fortnight-long fiesta in which installations of parodic papier-mache, cardboard, and wooden sculptures are traditionally burnt every year on the last day of the event in the so-called “Crema” to end the festivities. (Photo by Biel Alino/EPA/EFE)

Protesters sit in a cafe during a “SlutWalk” protest, in which several hundred participants march through the centre of Jerusalem, May 13, 2016. The SlutWalk movement began after a Toronto policeman suggested in 2011 that women could avoid sexual assault by not dressing like a “sl*t”. (Photo by Amir Cohen/Reuters)

India's Railway Protection Force (RPF) personnel assists a dog to perform a stunt during the celebrations to mark country's Independence Day, in Chennai on August 15, 2025. (Photo by R.Satish Babu/AFP Photo)

Yan Zhengming (R), 94, and his wife Zhou Suqing (C), 90, attend their wedding ceremony at their home, on the 70th anniversary of their marriage, in Quxian county of Dazhou, Sichuan province, China, May 15, 2015. The wedding, organized by local charity groups, was a long-time wish of veteran of the World War Two Yan, who married Zhou 70 years ago, but could not afford to have a wedding ceremony, local media reported. (Photo by Reuters/Stringer)

British Waters Wide Angle category runner-up. Grass snake swimming along a garden pond by Jack Perks (UK)in Nottinghamshire, UK. “I’m always on the lookout for unusual freshwater subjects and grass snakes are a species I’ve been after for years. I was told about a pond where the odd grass snake hangs around the lilly pads for frogs. I put my drysuit on and got into the water and could see one slithering along the surface. Slowly making my way towards it with my head only just poking above I got the spilt shot”. (Photo by Jack Perks/Underwater Photographer of the Year 2019)

Sarah Gibbons grades a new batch of Maple Syrup at Gibbons Family Farm in Frankville, Ontario, Canada, 31 March 2014. The annual maple syrup season marks the end of the often brutal central Canadian winters and heralds the beginning of spring. The maple tree, whose leaf dominates the Canada's flag, plays both a symbolic and practical role in the identity of Canadians who produce around 95 percent of the world's supply of maple syrup. (Photo by Stephen Morrison/EPA)

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)

Third place: the rear leg, claw and respiratory trachea of a louse (Haematopinus suis). (Photo by Frank Reiser/Nassau Community College/Nikon Small World Photomicrography 2021)