A bodyboarder rides a wave during a big- wave surfing session at Praia do Norte in Nazare on November 19, 2016. (Photo by Patricia de Melo Moreira/AFP Photo)

A model waits backstage to present creations from the Fall-Winter 2021/2022 collection of the Georgiela Studio fashion brand during a young talents “EGO” fashion show on the last day of the 73rd Mercedes-Benz Fashion Week Madrid, in Madrid, Spain, 11 April 2021. The fashion event runs from 08 to 11 April. (Photo by Mariscal/EPA/EFE)

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)

A three-year-old girl smokes a cigar during the Saint Simon celebrations in San Andres Itzapa, Guatemala, on October 28, 2019. Thousands believe that the saint helps people find work, solves family problems and cures illnesses. (Photo by Orlando Estrada/AFP Photo)

Third place: the rear leg, claw and respiratory trachea of a louse (Haematopinus suis). (Photo by Frank Reiser/Nassau Community College/Nikon Small World Photomicrography 2021)

(L-R) Daniel Radcliffe, Emma Watson, J K Rowling and Rupert Grint attend the World Premiere of “Harry Potter And The Deathly Hallows: Part 1” held at The Odeon Leicester Square on November 11, 2010 in London, England. (Photo by Dave Hogan/Getty Images)

Blanka Vlasic of Croatia and Team Europe celebrates a clearance in the women's high jump during the IAAF/VTB Continental Cup at the Stadion Poljud on September 5, 2010 in Split, Croatia. (Photo by Michael Steele/Getty Images)

Tourists take a “selfie” as demonstrators burn a trash container during a May Day rally in Barcelona, Spain, on May 1, 2014. Tens of thousands of workers marked May Day in European cities with a mix of anger and gloom over austerity measures imposed by leaders trying to contain the eurozone's intractable debt crisis. (Photo by Manu Fernandez/Associated Press)