A young moose stands behind a window in an administration building of Siemens in Dresden, Germany Monday August 25, 2014. Police are trying to capture a moose on the loose in the eastern German city of Dresden. A spokesman for Dresden police says the young bull walked into the offices of German industrial giant Siemens on Monday and got stuck behind a glass wall. Marko Laske says officers and wildlife are trying to shoo the moose into a container so he can be taken to the local zoo. Moose are rare in Germany and the animal is likely to have come from neighboring Poland. (Photo by Arno Burgi/AP Photo/DPA)

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 car made from parts taken from used vehicles is shown in street Hefei, Anhui Province in China, on Oktober 21, 2013. The machine, which reaches 60 km/h, is the brainchild of self-taught inventor Zhu Runqiang. (Photo by Reuters/China Daily)

P.S. All pictures are presented in high resolution. To see Hi-Res images – just TWICE click on any picture. In other words, click small picture – opens the BIG picture. Click BIG picture – opens VERY BIG picture (if available; this principle works anywhere on the site AvaxNews)

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)

“The Sloan Digital Sky Survey III (SDSS-III) has released the largest-ever three-dimensional map of massive galaxies and distant black holes, which will help astronomers explain the mysterious “dark matter” and “dark energy” that scientists know makes up 96 percent of the Universe”. – SDSS-III

Amundsen-Scott South Pole Station experiences months of darkness. The sun dips below the horizon on March 21, after which follows several weeks of twilight before complete darkness results. Photo taken on June 25, 2009. (National Science Foundation/Jeremy Johnson)

“Hydrocynus goliath, also known as the goliath tigerfish, giant tigerfish or mbenga, is a very large African predatory freshwater fish. The giant tigerfish is restricted to the Zaire River system, Lualaba River, Lake Upemba and Lake Tanganyika”. (Photo by Tigerfishcamp / Tourettefishing / Bigfishesoftheworld)