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)

While communism, collectivism, worms, dry rot and casual looting failed to destroy the majestic wooden churches of Russia, it may be ordinary neglect that finally does them in. Dwindled now to several hundred remaining examples, these glories of vernacular architecture lie scattered amid the vastness of the world’s largest country. Just over a decade ago, Richard Davies, a British architectural photographer, struck out on a mission to record the fragile and poetic structures. Austerely beautiful and haunting, “Wooden Churches: Traveling in the Russian North” (White Sea Publishing; $132) is the result. Covering thousands of miles, Mr. Davies described how he and the writer Matilda Moreton tracked down the survivors from among the thousands of onion-domed structures built after Prince Vladimir converted to Christianity in 988.

American actress Dakota Johnson at the Red-Carpet World Premiere of Columbia Pictures' MADAME WEB at the Regency Village Westwood Theater on February 12, 2024 in Los Angeles, California. (Photo by Stewart Cook/Getty Images for Sony Pictures)

Dasha performs during the CMT (Country Music Television) Music Awards in Austin, Texas, U.S., April 7, 2024. (Photo by Kevin Wurm/Reuters)

Ellie Alderson partner of Ollie Watkins (ENG) and Lewis Capaldi the wife of Dean Henderson (ENG) Aine May Kennedy partner of Conor Gallagher (ENG) Megan Davison wife of Jordan Pickford (ENG) at Arena Aufschalke, Gelsenkirchen, Germany on June 16, 2024. (Photo by Moritz Muller/Alamy Live News)

A handout photo made available by Indonesia's Center for Volcanology and Geological Hazard Mitigation shows hot lava spewing from Mount Ibu in North Maluku province, Indonesia, 04 July 2024 (issued 05 July 2024). The Center for Volcanology and Geological Disaster Mitigation (PVMBG) advises the community around Mount Ibu and visitors not to carry out activities within a radius of 2.0 kilometers and a sectoral expansion of 5 kilometers towards the crater opening in the northern part of the active crater of Mount Ibu. (Photo by PVMBG/EPA)

Beach volleyball athletes from Lithuania and Spain train in Paris on July 25, 2024. (Photo by Louisa Gouliamaki/Reuters)

Actress Jennifer Aniston is seen filming on location for “The Morning Show” in the Flatiron District on July 28, 2024 in New York City. (Photo by James Devaney/GC Images)