Now celebrating its 40th year, Nikon Small World is widely regarded as the leading forum to recognize proficiency and photographic excellence of photography taken under the microscope. To select the winners, competition judges analyzed entries from all over the world covering subjects ranging from chemical compounds to up-close-and-personal looks at biological specimens. The 2014 winners will be revealed on October 30th. In 2014, the competition received over 1,200 entries from more than 79 countries around the world. (Photo by Dr. Igor Robert Siwanowicz/Nikon Small World 2014)

In this February 1, 2017 photo, environmental activist Maruja Inquilla poses for a photo next to a Municipal waste treatment plant with water that flows into Lake Titicaca, in Juliaca, in the Puno region of Peru. “If the frogs could talk they would say, This is killing me”," said Inquilla, who recently showed up at the Puno governor's house carrying plastic bags filled with hundreds of dead frogs in protest. (Photo by Rodrigo Abd/AP Photo)

A youth dives into a crater filled with water in Aleppo's al-Shaar district, in this July 10, 2014 file photo. (Photo by Hosam Katan/Reuters)

Princess Diana relaxes on the sand during a visit to the beach on the Caribbean Island of Nevis January 4, 1993. (Photo by Mark Cardwell/Reuters)

N.C. Dezendorf, wife of the general manager of the Electro-Motive division of General Motors, christens the new lightweight “Aerotrain” at the company's locomotive works in La Grange, Ill. on August 22, 1955. (Photo by Edward Kitch/AP Photo)

Employee Jenny Forgie works on an orchid display at Kew Gardens in London, Thursday, February 8, 2018. The 23rd annual Orchid Festival is the first one with a Thailand theme, 66 volunteers worked on the 6,950 exhibited orchids. The festival is open from Feb. 10, 2018 until March 11, 2018. (Photo by Frank Augstein/AP Photo)

Blindfolded Myanmar boys try to eat the biscuits during a fair on the occasion of the 73rd Myanmar Independence Day in Yangon, Myanmar, 04 January 2021. Myanmar, also known as Burma, was colonized by Britain in 1824 and became an independent republic on 04 January 1948. (Photo by Lynn Bo Bo/EPA/EFE)

A Syrian Kurdish ballet dancer performs in an empty market during a lockdown to curb the spread of the Covid-19 coronavirus in Syria's northeastern city of Qamishli on April 7, 2021. (Photo by Delil Souleiman/AFP Photo)