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)

Pro-Russian rebels stand near a monument during a ceremony to honour the World War Two defenders of Donetsk from Nazi forces, in Donetsk, in this September 8, 2014 file photo. (Photo by Marko Djurica/Reuters)

Lazar and his sister Andjelka sit by a candle in their home in the eastern Serbian town of Majdanpek, December 4, 2014. Electricity workers in Serbia struggled through snow, ice and treacherous terrain on Thursday to restore electricity to an eastern town left shivering without power, heating or running water for a fourth day. (Photo by Marko Djurica/Reuters)

Ary Borges feeds his tiger named Dan at his home in Maringa, Brazil, Thursday, September 26, 2013. Borges is in a legal battle with federal wildlife officials to keep his endangered animals from undergoing vasectomies and being taken away from him. He defends his right to breed the animals and says he gives them a better home than they might find elsewhere in Brazil. (Photo by Renata Brito/AP Photo)

A young girl splashes through a waterfall at a park in Washington, DC, on June 28, 2021, as a heatwave moves over much of the United States. Swathes of the United States and Canada endured record-setting heat on June 27, 2021, forcing schools and Covid-19 testing centers to close and the postponement of an Olympic athletics qualifying event, with forecasters warning of worse to come. The village of Lytton in British Columbia broke the record for Canada's all-time high, with a temperature of 46.6 degrees Celsius (116 Fahrenheit), said Environment Canada. (Photo by Jim Watson/AFP Photo)

A confiscated pet lion poses with a dog as it arrived back home from the Phnom Tamao Wildlife Rescue Center after Prime Minister Hun Sen ordered authorities to return the animal in Phnom Penh, Cambodia, July 5, 2021. (Photo by Cindy Liu/Reuters)

A resident reacts as a health worker collects a swab sample to test for the Covid-19 coronavirus in Colombo on July 27, 2021. (Photo by Ishara S. Kodikara/AFP Photo)

LGBT activists take part in a “Rave Pride” demanding state support for the local LGBTQ outside Ukrainian President's office in Kyiv, Ukraine on July 30, 2021. (Photo by Gleb Garanich/Reuters)