When a French politician remarked that a monument should be raised in honour of American independence at a dinner party in 1865 he probably didn't imagine that the result would become an international icon of freedom. ...

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)

A copy of part of the Dead Sea Scrolls is displayed at the “Dead Sea Scrolls: Life and Faith in Biblical Times” exhibition at Discovery Times Square on December 16, 2011 in New York City. (Photo by Spencer Platt/Getty Images)

A visitor poses behind the artwork “Convergence” by artist Masarrat Fatima M Sulaimani and curated by Samar Kamel at the World Art Dubai fair at the Dubai World Trade Centre in the Gulf Emirate of Dubai, United Arab Emirates, 08 October 2020. Around 2,000 art pieces are displaying at the sixth edition of the World Art Dubai fair which is running from 08 to 10 October 2020. (Photo by Ali Haider/EPA/EFE)

Majesty Davis, 3, cries while visiting Santa Claus, who sits behind a plexiglass divider due to the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic, at the Willow Grove Park Mall in Willow Grove, Pennsylvania, U.S. November 14, 2020. (Photo by Mark Makela/Reuters)

Dancers from The Royal Ballet perform beside the Regent's Canal in London on August 30, 2020, one of three performances they put on daily on weekends to experience performing in front of a live socially-distanced audience. (Photo by Isabel Infantes/AFP Photo)

A woman walks past a mural on a wall along a street in Singapore on February 17, 2021. (Photo by Roslan Rahman/AFP Photo)

Swimmers in fancy dress take part in a Christmas Day dip at Exmouth, Devon, England, Saturday, December 25, 2021. (Photo by Ben Birchall/PA Wire via AP Photo)