Now celebrating its 40th year, Nikon Small World is widely regarded as the leading forum to recognize proficiency and photographic excellence of photography taken under the microscope. To select the winners, competition judges analyzed entries from all over the world covering subjects ranging from chemical compounds to up-close-and-personal looks at biological specimens. The 2014 winners will be revealed on October 30th. In 2014, the competition received over 1,200 entries from more than 79 countries around the world. (Photo by Dr. Igor Robert Siwanowicz/Nikon Small World 2014)

“Centuries ago, Inuit hunted the bowhead whale. At that time, whale hunting undoubtedly was part of a complex and very important ritual, if only because of the size of the catch. The position that the ancestors of today's Inuit occupied in the living world involved a relationship with the spirit that inhabited each animal but also their species”. (Photo by Robert Frechette/2014 Sony World Photography Awards)

A handout photograph provided by Brian Kubicki of Costa Rican Amphibian Research Center on 26 April 2016 shows a “Crystal frog”, Hyalinobatrachium dianae (H. diane). This frog was discovered by US biologist Brian Kubicki and Costa Ricans Stanley Salazar and Robert Puschendorf in a rainy forest of Costa Rican caribbean after 40 years without notice of any new example of this kind. (Photo by Brian Kubicki/EPA/Costa Rican Amphibian Research Center)

A man arrested for protesting over human rights abuses makes a court appearance in leg irons at the magistrates courts in Harare, Monday, September 14, 2020. Human rights defenders say it appears the government is using restrictions imposed to combat COVID-19 to suppress political criticism. Opposition officials, human rights groups and some analysts accuse Mnangagwa of abusing the rights of critics, using tactics as harsh as his predecessor, the late Robert Mugabe. (Photo by Tsvangirayi Mukwazhi/AP Photo)

Cars are parked near Place de la Concorde on March 12, 2014 in Paris, France. Inset: World War I, German airplanes at Place de la Concorde in Paris, wrecked by celebrating crowds on the day of the restoration of Alsace-Lorraine, November 18, 1918. (Photo by Peter Macdiarmid/Getty Images)

Burlesque dancer INGA performs during the Viva Las Vegas Rockabilly Weekend's Burlesque Showcase hosted by John Waters at the Orleans Arena on April 19, 2019 in Las Vegas, Nevada. (Photo by Ethan Miller/Getty Images)

A skater jumps through a ring of fire at the La Bodega Skate facilities as part of one of the Vans contests to showcase the top street skaters in Europe on September 16, 2023 in Jerez de la Frontera, Spain. (Photo by Juan Carlos Toro/Getty Images)

Scott Bisson of Quantum Creative Glass was first fascinated by the medium in high school chemistry class, at age seventeen. Since then, he has studied with five different masters, as well as at the world renowned Pilchuck School with Robert A. Mickelson, and has met and observed Dante Marioni, William Morris, and Peter Novotney.