Soap Bubble Structures by Kym Cox. Bubbles optimise space and minimise their surface area for a given volume of air. This phenomenon makes them a useful tool in many areas of research, in particular, materials science and “packing” – how things fit together. Bubble walls drain under gravity, thin at the top, thick at the bottom, which interferes with travelling lightwaves to create bands of colour. Black spots show the wall is too thin for interference colours, indicating the bubble is about to burst. (Photo by Kym Cox/2019 Science Photographer of the Year/RPS)

Ana Louzi and Junio Enriuque dance for a video during sunrise from SUMMIT One Vanderbilt on World Photography Day on August 19, 2022 in New York City. Summit One Vanderbilt opened the 1000-foot observation beginning at 5 AM to allow ticketed members of the general public and photo enthusiasts to see sunrise from the elevated altitude. World Photography Day is an “annual, worldwide celebration of the art, craft, science and history of photography” according to their website. (Photo by Alexi Rosenfeld/Getty Images)

Residents of the Santa Marta favela, Botafogo, south zone in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil unite to sanitize the community and fight the advance of the new coronavirus this Saturday, November 28, 2020. (Photo by Ellan Lustosa/ZUMA Wire/Rex Features/Shutterstock)

Residents ride on top of an overcrowded “Jeepney”, a locally manufactured public transport, along a highway in Mogpog town on Marinduque island in central Philippines April 8, 2015. (Photo by Erik De Castro/Reuters)

A Nymph or female devotee of the Vale do Amanhecer religious community, prays at their temple complex in Vale do Amanhecer (Sunrise Valley), a community on the outskirts of Planaltina, 50 km from the Brazilian capital, Brasilia, on April 29, 2023. This eclectic community holds its most important ritual of the year on Labour Day to honour the mediums who communicate with good and bad spirits. The group combines a range of religious practices, including Christian and Hindu, with symbols borrowed from the Incas and Mayans, as well as a belief in extraterrestrial life and intergalactic travel. The religion claims hundred temples throughout Brazil, Portugal and other countries. (Photo by Carl de Souza/AFP Photo)

Military school cadets take part in a ceremony commemorating the 56th anniversary of the death of Camilo Cienfuegos who, along with Fidel Castro and Che Guevara, was a chief commander of the Cuban revolution in Havana, Cuba on October 28, 2015. (Photo by Xinhua/REX Shutterstock)

An Israeli 155mm self-propelled howitzer, loaded on a trailer, arrives at a position along the Israel-Gaza border on May 13, 2021. Israel deployed additional troops to Gaza's border as the military conflict with Palestinian Islamists raged on, while inside Israel security forces scrambled to contain deadly riots between Jews and Arabs. (Photo by Emmanuel Dunand/AFP Photo)

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)