A woman poses for pictures next to a Christmas tree in a shop selling Russian products in Wuhan, in China's central Hubei province on December 22, 2024, ahead of the fifth anniversary of China confirming its first death from the Covid-19 coronavirus. (Photo by Hector Retamal/AFP Photo)

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

An Anti-Balaka fighter, member of a militia opposed to the Seleka rebel group, puts a knife to his throat showing what he would do to any Seleka, on the outskirts of the Boy-Rabe neighborhood in Bangui on December 14, 2013. France raised alarm on December 13 over worsening violence in the Central African Republic, as UN chief Ban Ki-moon urged warring Christians and Muslims to stop the bloodshed that has left more than 600 dead in the past week. (Photo by Ivan Lieman/AFP Photo)

Taylor Swift performs “All Too Well” at the 56th annual Grammy Awards at Staples Center. (Photo by Matt Sayles/Invision)

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)

A man watches the huge waves which brakes at the Paseo Nuevo's promenade in San Sebastian, Basque Country, Spain on 11 January 2016 where the wind has reached to 90 km/h and have been registred waves of eight kilometres due to the bad weather. (Photo by Juan Herrero/EPA)

A pilot inflates a hot air balloon while taking part in the 38th International Balloon Festival of Chateau-d'oex, Switzerland, 23 January 2016. The festival takes place from 23 to 31 January. (Photo by Vincent Vannay/EPA)