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)

Natural world and wildlife shortlist. Lop Buri in Thailand is home to hundreds of macaques, which local residents consider to be disciples of the Hindu god Hanuman. While some people love them, others fear or even hate them. Despite the inconvenience they often cause, the macaques are generally respected and considered sacred. (Photo by Joan de la Malla/Sony World Photography Awards)

Flt Lt James Sainty flew a Typhoon in the final air show of the season at Duxford in Cambridgeshire in September 2021. (Photo by Claire Hartley/Bav Media)

Pupils Antonio Marin-Kalisz, 10 (left) and Zofia Krolikwska, 11 (right) from St Mary's Primary School in Leith, UK with local celebrity chef Tony Singh at the unveiling of Edinburgh Community Food's new educational tuk-tuk on Wednesday, October 2, 2024. The tuk-tuk will serve as a mobile educational initiative to teach communities about nutrition by making healthy cooking fun and accessible, and taking it into the heart of the community. (Photo by Jane Barlow/PA Images via Getty Images)

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)

This aerial image shows a gossan reservoir at the Riotinto mines in Minas de Riotinto, near of Huelva on September 30, 2022. Although the Rio Tinto Company began to exploit these mines in 1873, this mining site already supplied minerals to the ancient Greeks and Romans. (Photo by Jorge Guerrero/AFP Photo)

A Japan fan before their FIFA World Cup Qatar 2022 Group E match between Japan and Costa Rica at Ahmad Bin Ali Stadium on November 27, 2022 in Doha, Qatar. (Photo by Issei Kato/Reuters)

A woman feeds cats at Mar Elias Palestinian refugee camp in Beirut, Lebanon, on August 28, 2024. (Photo by Ahmed Saad/Reuters)