Children carry firewood on their heads and walk homewards on the outskirts of Rae Bareli, India, Thursday, December 17, 2020. (Photo by Rajesh Kumar Singh/AP Photo)

This photograph, taken on September 28, 2019, shows an Erythrina Abyssinica planted in a pasture on Ferme Espoir, owned by former President Joseph Kabila, in Masisi territory, northeast of the Democratic Republic of Congo. (Photo by Alexis Huguet/AFP Photo)

US Navy personnel walk on the flight deck aboard the USS Nimitz (CVN-68) aircraft carrier during its port visit to Busan on March 28, 2023. (Photo by Anthony Wallace/AFP Photo)

A young cholita from “Warmi Empollerada” project is portrayed emulating to fly with an umbrella during the sunset at the Salar de Uyuni (Uyuni Salt Flats), southwestern Bolivia, on June 25, 2023. The Salar de Uyuni is the world's largest salt flat and a top tourist destination in Bolivia and South America. (Photo by Marcelo Perez Del Carpio/Anadolu Agency via Getty Images)

English-Albanian singer Dua Lipa poses with a pup in the first decade of March 2025. (Photo by dualipa/Instagram)

“The White Lotus” co-stars Parker Posey (left) and Leslie Bibb reunite at the Gotham TV Awards near Wall Street in NYC on June 2, 2025. (Photo by Zach Hilty/BFA.com/Rex Features/Shutterstock)

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)

Vlada Nikolchenko of Ukraine performs with the ribbon during the 36th European Rhythmic Gymnastics Championships in Kyiv, Ukraine, Sunday, November 29, 2020. Athletes from 23 countries participate in the championship in Kyiv. (Photo by Efrem Lukatsky/AP Photo)