Paint-splattered revellers take a break at the Notting Hill carnival in West London in the last decade of August 2022. (Photo by Andy Hall/The Observer)

Nana Takano and Kaito Toyoshima, winners of the Shanghai preliminary and Asian Championship, compete in the final of the World Tango Championship final in Buenos Aires, Argentina, 27 August 2024. (Photo by Juan Ignacio Roncoroni/EPA)

Bronze whaler shark (Carcharhinus brachyurus), caught in traditional seine net and released by fisherman, Muizenberg beach, Cape Town, South Africa on October 11, 2016. Action shots have captured fishermen trying to free a potentially deadly Bronze Whaler shark who was caught in their nets. The incredible images show the eight-foot-long 500-pound predator lunging its mouth towards the fishermen who are desperately trying to pull it back into the safety of the sea by its tail. Eventually they succeeded. (Photo by Chris and Monique Fallows/NPL)

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)

Australia's Jessica Lim competes in the women's nangun final during the 13th World Wushu Championship 2015 at Istora Senayan stadium in Jakarta, November 17, 2015. (Photo by Reuters/Beawiharta)

US actress, model and transgender activist Leyna Bloom poses during a photocall for the film “Port Authority” at the 72nd edition of the Cannes Film Festival in Cannes, southern France, on May 19, 2019. (Photo by Stephane Mahe/Reuters)

Caio Souza of Team Brazil competes on vault during Men's Qualification on day one of the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games at Ariake Gymnastics Centre on July 24, 2021 in Tokyo, Japan. (Photo by Mike Blake/Reuters)

A skater jumps through a ring of fire at the La Bodega Skate facilities as part of one of the Vans contests to showcase the top street skaters in Europe on September 16, 2023 in Jerez de la Frontera, Spain. (Photo by Juan Carlos Toro/Getty Images)