People purchase the book “Steve Jobs” by Walter Isaacson on launch day at Shanghai's City of Books on October 24, 2011 in Shanghai, China. The book was launched in 30 book cities at the same time across the country. (Photo by ChinaFotoPress/Getty Images)

A model walks down the runway during the Safilo fashion show at the Mercedes-Benz Fashion Pavilion on January 30, 2012 in Stockholm, Sweden. (Photo by Ian Gavan/Getty Images)

A cyclist rides in al-Qudra desert in the Gulf emirate of Dubai, on June 8, 2020. (Photo by Giuseppe Cacace/AFP Photo)

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)

It's a 30-day-old Echidna baby, known as a “puggle” – one of only 24 ever bred in captivity. The proud parents are Tippy and Pickle of Australia Zoo. The tiny baby, whose s*x has not yet been identified, hatched from a soft egg and will continue to develop and nurse inside Tippy's warm pouch. (Photo by Australia Zoo/Rex/Sipa Press)

Chris “Birdman” Andersen poses for Getty Images photographer Mike Ehrmann during the Miami Heat's Media Day at AmericanAirlines Arena, on September 30, 2013. (Photo by Gary Coronado/The Palm Beach Post)

P.S. All pictures are presented in high resolution. To see Hi-Res images – just TWICE click on any picture. In other words, click small picture – opens the BIG picture. Click BIG picture – opens VERY BIG picture (if available; this principle works anywhere on the site AvaxNews)

Wounded Reuters photographer Gleb Garanich, who was injured by riot police, takes pictures as riot police block protesters during a scuffle at a demonstration in support of EU integration at Independence Square in Kiev November 30, 2013. Riot police in the Ukrainian capital Kiev used batons and stun grenades to disperse hundreds of pro-Europe protesters from the city's main Independence Square early on Saturday, witnesses said. (Photo by Reuters/Stringer)

Afghan air force 2nd Lt. Niloofar Rhmani walks the flight line at Shindand Air Base, Afghanistan, prior to her graduation from undergraduate pilot training, on May 13, 2013. Rhmani made history on May 14, when she became the first female to successfully complete undergraduate pilot training and earn the status of pilot in more than 30 years. She will continue her service as she joins the Kabul Air Wing as a Cessna 208 pilot. (Photo by Senior Airman Scott Saldukas/USAF)