A driver competes in his tractor during the Tractor Pulling Euro Championships in the western German town of Fuechtorf September 9, 2012. Eighty teams from across Europe participated in the two-day competition where high-powered tractor prototypes must pull a trailer down a 100-metre (328 ft) track as far as possible. (Photo by Ina Fassbender/Reuters)

Swiss rescue workers wheel a wounded person on a stretcher after two regional trains crashed head on near Granges-Pres-Marnand near Payerne in western Switzerland July 29, 2013. The two trains collided in the Swiss canton of Vaud on Monday evening, injuring about 40 people, four seriously, Swiss news agency ATS reported. There was no immediate report of any deaths in the crash. (Photo by Denis Balibouse/Reuters)

Gers, traditional Mongolian tents, are seen on a hill in an area known as a ger district in Ulan Bator June 26, 2013. Approximately 60 percent of the population of Ulan Bator live in settlements known as ger districts and in many cases residents have limited access to basic services such as water and sanitation. According to a 2010 National Population Center census, every year between thirty and forty thousand people migrate from the countryside to the capital Ulan Bator. Ger districts in the city have been expanding rapidly in recent years. Mongolia is the world's least densely populated country, with 2.8 million people spread across an area around three times the size of France. (Photo by Carlos Barria/Reuters)

“Der Jen (Dezhen; 德珍繪館) has achieved fame in her homeland and that fame is now spreading to other parts of the world as more and more people become familiar with her beautiful paintings. This Taiwanese artist depicts these beautiful ladies in classic, traditional dress that would have been worn by members of the royal court or an empress herself. Traditional hair styles and jewelry depicted in her pieces are also considered authentic. Der Jens art can be found in Chinese advertising, childrens magazines, romance novels, tarot cards, and even on public transit tickets. Its also making its way to our pcs as desktop wallpaper”.

Photo: Der Jen (Dezhen; 德珍繪館) – “The beauty of Brocade” (please click to enlarge).

A woman dressed as the Star Trek character “Leeta” (C) and man dressed as “Rom” (2R) arrive to attend the “Destination Star Trek London” convention at the ExCeL centre on October 19, 2012 in London, England. The three-day convention, which opened to the general public today, will be attended by all five actors who played captains throughout the 46-year-old series. (Photo by Oli Scarff)

A model of a ghost made from translucent fibreglass is lit from inside at Gem's (Wax Models) Ltd, in the Portobello Road area of west London. The ghost is due to go to the Capistrano Mission Museum in California, where tourists are told the legend of how he frightened a young Indian girl novice to death. 1st May 1965. (Photo by Chris Ware/Keystone Features)

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)