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)

While many of us would pay good money for a spa mud bath, these fortunate hippos in South Luangwa National Park, Zambia, have nature to thank as they take a plunge in a lagoon in the second decade of February 2024. (Photo by Dimitar Nedelchev/Solent News)

Young girls carry containers filled with drinking water beside the railway station in Agartala, India, April 20, 2016. (Photo by Jayanta Dey/Reuters)

Argentine Spanish model Georgina Rodriguez arrives on September 1, 2022 for the screening of the film “Tar” presented in the Venezia 79 competition at the 79th Venice International Film Festival at Lido di Venezia in Venice, Italy. (Photo by Guglielmo Mangiapane/Reuters)

Yu Jietao, 26-year-old wood carver, sits in his homemade wooden car along a street in Guangfeng county of Shangrao, Jiangxi province, China February 9, 2015. The car can travel as fast as 30 km (18.6 miles) per hour, local media reported. (Photo by Reuters/Stringer)

Ricardo Azevedo rides his Honda NX 200 motorbike, which he converted to be powered by water, in Salto, northwest of Sao Paulo, Brazil, August 6, 2015. The Sao Paulo civil servant built the motorbike, which can cover up to 500 kilometres (311 miles) fuelled by just one litre of water. Dubbed “Moto Power H2O” the bike is powered by the process of electrolysis, which breaks the water molecule down into its constituent elements. (Photo by Nacho Doce/Reuters)

Neon sea creatures have been captured lighting up the ocean with their vibrant colors – in what looked like a scene from Avatar. Photographer Simon Pierce, 39, took the images over several months after visiting both Nosy Sakatia in Madagascar and Mafia Island in Tanzania recently. (Photo by Simon Pierce/Caters News Agency)

Burlesque dancer and Lucha VaVoom co-founder Rita D'Albert gets dressed before the Lucha VaVoom “Night of the Vampire” performance in Los Angeles, California October 29, 2014. (Photo by Patrick T. Fallon/Reuters)