A tourist carries her luggage in a flooded St. Mark's Square, in Venice, Wednesday, November 13, 2019. The high-water mark hit 187 centimeters (74 inches) late Tuesday, Nov. 12, 2019, meaning more than 85% of the city was flooded. The highest level ever recorded was 194 centimeters (76 inches) during infamous flooding in 1966. (Photo by Luca Bruno/AP Photo)

Fox cubs venture out from their den under a popular boardwalk alongside Lake Ontario during the global outbreak of the coronavirus disease (COVID-19), in Toronto, Ontario, Canada on April 22, 2020. (Photo by Carlos Osorio/Reuters)

A vegetable vendor wearing gloves and face mask as a precaution against the coronavirus interacts with a customer in Bengaluru, India, Sunday, October 11, 2020. India's confirmed coronavirus toll crossed 7 million on Sunday with a number of new cases dipping in recent weeks, even as health experts warn of mask and distancing fatigue setting in. (Photo by Aijaz Rahi/AP Photo)

Pakistani boys jump in the water to cool off in a pond to beat the heat wave continues in Larkana, Pakistan, 26 June 2021. Pakistan's Meteorological Department (PMD) said the weather in the city will remain hot and humid for the next three days. (Photo by Waqar Hussain/EPA/EFE)

A Hezbollah supporter fires a rocket-propelled grenade in the air to celebrate the arrival of Iranian fuel tankers to Lebanon, in the eastern town of Baalbek, Lebanon, Thursday, September 16, 2021. The delivery violates US sanctions imposed on Tehran after former President Donald Trump pulled America out of a nuclear deal between Iran and world powers three years ago. (Photo by Bilal Hussein/AP Photo)

French celebrities show off dresses made with chocolate at the Paris chocolate fair on October 27, 2021 in Paris, France. From left: Gennifer Demey, a weather forecaster; Isabelle Vitari, an actress; and Alicia Aylies, Miss France 2017. (Photo by Laurent Viteur/Getty Images)

An Israeli soldier waits at the bus station, amid the ongoing conflict in Gaza between Israel and Hamas, in Tel Aviv, Israel on August 15, 2024. (Photo by Florion Goga/Reuters)

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)