Lexi Tonniges (C) and Lauren Grundmann (R), joined by other dancers, perform on a stage during a rally outside a hearing concerning the US singer Britney Spears’ conservatorship at the Stanley Mosk Courthouse in Los Angeles, California, USA, 12 November 2021. (Photo by Caroline Brehman/EPA/EFE)

Pfc. Remy Bouchard swaps a cigarette for an egg with a French Orphan near La Haye Du Puits, France on July 18, 1944, which was captured by American forces. The boy is only twelve years old. (Photo by Hugh Broderick/AP Photo)

A Hawaiian cleaner wrasse provides its cleaning services to a yellowfin goatfish in a reef community off the Big Island in Hawaii. Cleaner species help rid their hosts of ectoparasites, dead tissue, bacteria and fungi. Studies have shown cleaning to play a vital role in keeping many reef ecosystems healthy. (Photo by Marty Snyderman/Caters News Agency)

France's defender #07 Sakina Karchaoui (L) and France's forward #11 Kadidiatou Diani (R) celebrate their win at the end of the Australia and New Zealand 2023 Women's World Cup Group F football match between France and Brazil at Brisbane Stadium in Brisbane on July 29, 2023. (Photo by Dan Peled/Reuters)

Thierry Neuville of Belgium drives his Hyundai i20 Coupe WRC during day 3 of Rally Mexico, in Leon, Guanajuato, Mexico, 14 March​ 2020. (Photo by Reporter Images/EPA/EFE)

An adult black-rumped flameback woodpecker is pestered by a pair of hungry chicks in Rajarhat, India in the second decade of May 2024. (Photo by Kalyan Acharya/Solent News)

A visitor feeds a food pellet to a giraffe in the Giraffe Centre in Nairobi, Kenya January 15, 2017. (Photo by Goran Tomasevic/Reuters)

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)