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)

This image released by Metro Goldwyn Mayer Pictures shows Ana de Armas in a scene from “No Time To Die”. (Photo by Nicola Dove/Metro Goldwyn Mayer Pictures via AP Photo)

After being shunned for years, American actress Demi Moore is back in horror movie The Substance, which has stunned viewers with its shocking blood, gore and nudity. (Photo by Interview Magazine's September 2024)

Ivan, a tourist from Russia, takes a selfie at Mai Khao Beach as a plane takes off from Phuket International Airport in Phuket, Thailand, January 17, 2022. (Photo by Jorge Silva/Reuters)

School children take shelter under desks during a tsunami simulation drill ahead of World Tsunami Awareness Day at Futaba elementary school in Choshi, Chiba Prefecture, Japan, November 4, 2016. (Photo by Kim Kyung-Hoon/Reuters)

Foreign tourists join the annual Songkran Festival celebration, the Thai traditional New Year, also known as the water festival in Silom district of Bangkok, Thailand, 13 April 2014. The three-day Songkran Festival runs from 13 to 15 April and is celebrated with splashing water and putting powder on each others faces as a symbolic sign of cleansing and washing away the sins from the old year. (Photo by Narong Sangnak/EPA)

Former UK' Love Island star Megan Barton Hanson stripped for OnlyFans in November 2020. The star has made a fortune stripping on her OnlyFans website, where it is estimated she earns up to £800k a month. (Photo by Ochiuk/Chilli Media)

Indian commuters wade through floodwaters during the continuous rain shower in Calcutta, India, July 10, 2015. A monsoon shower hit the city and disrupted daily life. The Indian monsoon, takes place between May and September. (Photo by Piyal Adhikary/EPA)