A pine marten – one of a few wild mammals doing well in Britain (although they number just 3,700). A fifth of the country’s wild mammals are at high risk of extinction, research shows. (Photo by Maurice Flynn/The Mammal Society)

11-year-old Balinese dancer girl Intan puts on makeup before she performs Mergapati Dance at a village event in Banjar Wangaye Kelod, Denpasar, Bali, Indonesia on November 19, 2017. To preserve traditional dances and culture, Balinese train their children to learn various traditional dances from childhood. (Photo by Mahendra Moonstar/Anadolu Agency/Getty Images)

Abortion rights demonstrator reacts outside the United States Supreme Court as the court rules in the Dobbs v Women's Health Organization abortion case, overturning the landmark Roe v Wade abortion decision in Washington, U.S., June 24, 2022. (Photo by Evelyn Hockstein/Reuters)

Gabriel Berendo, a businessman and car enthusiast, drives a casket converted into a car on Sunday May 31, 2020 in Cebu city, central Philippines as he goes around streets to remind residents to stay at home as lockdown measures to prevent the spread of the new coronavirus eases next week. (Photo by AP Photo/Stringer)

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 May 2016 photo released by The Ocean Agency/XL Catlin Seaview Survey, a boat sails near a coral reef that has been bleached white by heat stress in the Maldives. oral reefs, unique underwater ecosystems that sustain a quarter of the world's marine species and half a billion people, are dying on an unprecedented scale. Scientists are racing to prevent a complete wipeout within decades. (Photo by The Ocean Agency/XL Catlin Seaview Survey via AP Photo)

Revelers throw colored corn starch into the air as they celebrate the 2015 Holi (Festival of Colors) at the Krishna Temple in Spanish Fork, Utah on Saturday, March 28, 2015. (Photo by Rick Bowmer/AP Photo)

Sophia Fernandes, a member of the Kalunga quilombo, the descendants of runaway slaves, dons traditional afro braids, during the culmination of the week-long pilgrimage and celebration for the patron saint “Nossa Senhora da Abadia” or Our Lady of Abadia, in the rural area of Cavalcante in Goias state, Brazil, Saturday, August 13, 2022. Devotees celebrate Our Lady of Abadia at this time of the year with weddings, baptisms and by crowning distinguished community members, as they maintain cultural practices originating from Africa that mix with Catholic traditions. (Photo by Eraldo Peres/AP Photo)