It's that time of year again when dogs with unusually large heads, hairless bodies and other oddities compete to be the World's Ugliest Dog. This year's winner? A 2-year-old mutt named Peanut, whose wild white and brown hair, bulging eyes and protruding teeth belie his sweet, energetic personality. Peanut's owner, Holly Chandler of Greenville, North Carolina, says he was seriously burned as a puppy and she wants to use her pet to raise awareness about animal abuse. She plans to use the $1,500 prize to pay for other animals' veterinary bills. The contest, held at the Sonoma-Marin Fairgrounds in Petaluma, California, is in its 26 year. The dogs are scored by a three-judge panel in several categories, including special or unusual attributes, personality and natural ugliness.

The Museum of Feelings doesn't really have “exhibits" in the conventional sense; rather, visitors move from one themed alcove to another, five in total, each with its own distinctive aroma. The “Optimistic Room," bathed in vivid pink and purple light, is little more than a lightshow, with patrons using small reflective panels to bounce light around the room. Here: People interact in the “optimistic” room at the Museum of Feelings, a pop-up installation in New York, December 15, 2015. (Photo by Stephanie Keith/Reuters)

Summer Zhai and Vicky He, dressed as characters from the anime "Love Live!", rest on stairs during day two of New York Comic Con in Manhattan, New York, October 9, 2015. The event draws thousands of costumed fans, panels of pop culture luminaries and features a sprawling floor of vendors in a space equivalent to more than three football fields at the Jacob Javitz Convention Center on Manhattan's West side. (Photo by Andrew Kelly/Reuters)

One of the two wooden rafts of the Kon-Tiki II expedition is prepared at the port of Callao prior to the departure to Pascua island in Chile, in Callao, Peru, October 30, 2015. Fourteen men from various parts of the world set out on rafts to commemorate the Norwegian navigator Thor Heyerdahl expedition 68 years ago. The original raft crossed the Pacific Ocean from South America to the Polynesian Islands. This rafts are a replica of ships used 6,000 years ago, but will be equipped with solar panel. (Photo by Mariana Bazo/Reuters)

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 August 17, 2016, photo, from left to right, Chhering Chodom, 60, Tashi Yangzom, 50, Lobsang Chhering, 27, and Dorje Tandup, 58, drink milk tea on the side of the road. For centuries, the sleepy valley nestled in the Indian Himalayas remained a hidden Buddhist enclave forbidden to outsiders. Enduring the harsh year-round conditions of the high mountain desert, the people of Spiti Valley lived by a simple communal code – share the Earth's bounty, be hospitable to neighbors, and eschew greed and temptation at all turns. That's all starting to change, for better or worse. (Photo by Thomas Cytrynowicz/AP Photo)

A dinosaur robot produced by Tyco Electronics Japan G.K. is controlled by a smartphone at CEATEC (Combined Exhibition of Advanced Technologies) Japan 2014 held at at Makuhari Messe in Chiba, east of Tokyo, Japan, 07 October 2014.With a Sharp Aquos ZETA mobile phone model, users can make the 6.5-meter (21 feet, 4 inches) long, 2.1-meter (6 feet, 11 inches) tall dinosaur robot to walk forward and backward, jump, move its head, hands and legs up and down, left and right, open and close its mouth by touching the screen panel and make it bark by shaking the handheld. (Photo by Kimimasa Mayama/EPA)