Each year Nikon Small World recognizes the excellence of photography taken under the microscope. The contest showcases the beauty and complexity of life. Anyone interested in microscopy and photography can enter the contest and in its 42nd year, Nikon Small World received 2,000 entries from 70 countries. Here: 11th Place; Scales of a butterfly wing underside (Vanessa atalanta). (Photo by Francis Sneyers/Nikon's Small World 2016)

An Afghan man rides on his donkey, holding balloons for sale during Newroz Day celebrations, a festival marking their spring and new year, in Kabul, Afghanistan March 21, 2017. (Photo by Omar Sobhani/Reuters)

A 12th century manuscript of The Old Testament sits in the Chained Library of Hereford Cathedral after it's annual spring clean on January 24, 2012 in Hereford, England. (Photo by Christopher Furlong/Getty Images)

An Afghan hunter shoots at a duck in Laghman province, Afghanistan on May 30, 2018. (Photo by Reuters/Parwiz)

An Afghan boy plays in the ruins of a house that at one point belonged to the 13th-century Persian poet, Islamic scholar and Sufi mystic Jalal ad-Din Muhammad Rumi on the outskirts of Mazar-i-Sharif on November 25, 2015. (Photo by Farshad Usyan/AFP Photo)

In this photograph taken on February 18, 2016, Pakistani children ride on swings in the predominantly Pashtun Korangi District of Karachi. In a rundown district of Karachi, Rabia balks at a neighbour's proposal to vaccinate her children, demonstrating one of the biggest hurdles to eradicating polio in Pakistan by the end of the year: confused and frightened parents. (Photo by Asif Hassan/AFP Photo)

A Bangladeshi girl watches from a nearby building after a five-story building was raided by police in Dhaka, Bangladesh, Tuesday, July 26, 2016. Police in Bangladesh's capital raided a five-story building Tuesday that was used as a den by suspected Islamic militants, killing nine of them, the country's police chief said. Police said they belonged to a Bangladeshi group blamed for an attack on a Dhaka cafe earlier this month in which 20 hostages, mostly foreigners, were killed and had been planning another large-scale assault. (Photo by AP Photo)

A labourer carries roosters to a poultry shop in Dhaka on August 14, 2024. (Photo by Indranil Mukherjee/AFP Photo)