Participants jump over a bonfire as they celebrate the Pagan holiday of Ivan Kupala, a traditional holiday that has been observed in Ukraine since pre-Christian times, in Kyiv, on June 23, 2024, amid the Russian invasion in Ukraine. (Photo by Anatolii Stepanov/AFP Photo)

A child dressed as a New York Fire Department member watches the Veterans Day parade behind a New York Police Department officer on Fifth Avenue in Manhattan, New York City on November 11, 2025. (Photo by Kylie Cooper/Reuters)

Kids in fancy dress eat for free at Asda Cafés in Leeds, UK on Halloween on 31st October, 2025 – a real treat for families this spooky season. (Photo by Doug Jackson/PinPep)

British-Albanian singer Dua Lipa performs during 2024 Austin City Limits Music Festival at Zilker Park on October 05, 2024 in Austin, Texas. (Photo by Erika Goldring/WireImage)

American media personality and socialite Kim Kardashian attends the 2024 LACMA Art+Film Gala at Los Angeles County Museum of Art on November 02, 2024 in Los Angeles, California. (Photo by Alberto E. Rodriguez/WireImage)

A model poses for a portrait backstage during Dakar Fashion Week July 10, 2011. (Photo by Finbarr O'Reilly/Reuters)

Havilland Mosquito KA 114 performs a low pass during an airshow commemorating the completion of its rebuild on September 29, 2012 in Ardmore, New Zealand. The plane was restored by Warbird Restorations at Ardmore Aerodrome and is the only flying Mosquito in the world. (Photo by Simon Watts)

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)