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)

This bat gives a cheeky smile as he gobbles down his food at Singapore Zoo, on September 10, 2013. (Photo by Benny Iskander/HotSpot Media)

Darth Mykolaiovych Vader, who is dressed as the “Star Wars” character Darth Vader, poses for a picture as he dries his mask and helmet with a hairdryer in the bathroom of his apartments in Odessa, Ukraine, December 2, 2015. Darth Vader was bent on galactic domination, but his Ukrainian namesake enjoys more mundane pursuits: local politics, walking the family dog and a spot of embroidery. The Ukrainian citizen, who has changed his name to Darth Mykolaiovych Vader, ran for the post of local mayor in October, his political backers dressed as Stormtroopers. In his trademark black outfit, he is a regular sight around Odessa, a major port city on southern Ukraine's Black Sea coast. (Photo by Valentyn Ogirenko/Reuters)

Vultures gather to eat waste in Bica beach, on the banks of the Guanabara Bay, with the Sugar Loaf mountain in background, 500 days ahead the Rio 2016 Olympic Games in Rio de Janeiro March 24, 2015. As part of its Olympic bid, Rio promised to clean up 80 percent of the bay for the games. But local government officials have already admitted that a cleanup by 2016 is not achievable. Despite millions of dollars of investment over the years, the bay still stinks of sewage. Sailors who visited the city for test events complained of a floating sofa and a dead dog in the water. (Photo by Ricardo Moraes/Reuters)

A monkey jumps from a branch at Yangon Zoological Gardens in Yangon, Myanmar, 06 April 2016. Yangon Zoological Gardens (Yangon Zoo) is the oldest and second largest zoo in Myanmar. (Photo by Lynn Bo Bo/EPA)

Veterinarians and biologists from the Quito Zoo and the Andean Condor Foundation fit a tracking collar that juvenile Andean bear Tupak will wear for the next four years, prior to his reintroduction into the wild, after the bear's life was deemed in danger due to proximity to humans, in Quito, Ecuador on March 31, 2024. (Photo by Karen Toro/Reuters)

A large Pacific sideband snail slowly crosses a rain wet road in rural Douglas County, Oregon near Elkton on Sunday, December 2, 2012. The moisture loving snail should be very content with the recent heavy rains in southwestern Oregon and northern California. (Photo by Robin Loznak)

A baby tamandua, or anteater, named Poco sticks out its tongue on May 31, 2018. ZSL London Zoo is celebrating the creature’s surprise birth after they found a male to be the companion of its mother Ria last October. (Photo by ZSL London Zoo/PA Wire)