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)

Wrocław has been selected as European Capital of Culture for 2016. The Wrocław area has many popular professional sports teams. The most popular sport today is football, thanks to Śląsk Wrocław. Some matches of the 2012 UEFA European Football Championships in Poland and Ukraine are scheduled to take place in Wrocław on The Municipal Stadium.

Photo by: penny_7b ; Source: Flickr

Members of the Mayossa Folk Dance Group pour water on young women in Kiskunmajsa, some 140 kms southeast of Budapest, Hungary, Monday, April 2, 2018. According to a several hundred years old tradition of Hungarian villages young men pour water on young women who in exchange present their sprinklers with beautifully colored eggs on Easter Monday. (Photo by Sandor Ujvari/MTI via AP Photo)

A thirsty timber wolf, Lithuania, 2018. (Photo by Erikas Plucas/Alamy Stock Photo)

Aerial view of Christ The Protector Statue at sunrise on April 21, 2021 in Encantado, Brazil. The statue under construction in Encantado, Southern Brazil, will be named Cristo the Protector and will surpass the iconic Christ The Redeemer of Rio de Janeiro by five meters. Made of steel and concrete, it will stand 43 meters including its pedestal, and become the third-tallest statue of Jesus Christ in the world. (Photo by Buda Mendes/Getty Images)

A train passes as floodwaters from the Tule River inundate the area after days of heavy rain in Corcoran, California, U.S., March 22, 2023. (Photo by David Swanson/Reuters)

American actress and singer Vanessa Hudgens poses on the red carpet during the Oscars arrivals at the 94th Academy Awards in Hollywood, Los Angeles, California, U.S., March 27, 2022. (Photo by Mike Blake/Reuters)

Bradie, a corgi, competes in the dock dive competition during the 147th Westminster Kennel Club Dog show, Saturday, May 6, 2023, at the USTA Billie Jean King National Tennis Center in New York. (Photo by Mary Altaffer/AP Photo)