Play-fighting cheetah siblings at the Zimanga game reserve in South Africa in the second decade of November 2024 were spotted by Gavin Bickerton-Jones, an amateur photographer, who said: “It is a bit scary at first being so close, but also a privilege for them to let you share their space”. (Photo by Gavin Bickerton-Jones/Solent News)

Drone photo of a dead humpback whale at Foelle Strand in Loegten Bay, Djursland, Denmark, on April 2, 2025. (Photo by Mikkel Berg Pedersen/Ritzau Scanpix via Reuters)

People wait for a subway train to depart Union Square station, in New York City on June 1, 2025. (Photo by Kevin Coombs/Reuters)

Fans react as Kansas City Chiefs wide receiver Xavier Worthy, right, signs autographs at the team's NFL football training camp Sunday, July 27, 2025, in St. Joseph, Mo. (Photo by Charlie Riedel/AP Photo)

Tara Davis-Woodhall of Team United States competes during the Women's Long Jump Final on day two of the World Athletics Championships Tokyo 2025 at National Stadium on September 14, 2025 in Tokyo, Japan. (Photo by Matthias Hangst/Getty Images)

Personal trainer, Denise Austin, and Katie Austin arrive at the ESPY Awards at the Microsoft Theater on Wednesday, July 13, 2016, in Los Angeles. (Photo by Jordan Strauss/Invision/AP 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)

In this photo taken on Friday, July 14, 2017, a student at a paramilitary camp for children calls the rank to attention outside Kiev, Ukraine. As the deadly conflict in eastern Ukraine entered its third year, some parents in Ukraine are anxious to make sure their children are ready to fight it, instead of swimming and playing volleyball. (Photo by Efrem Lukatsky/AP Photo)