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)

Natasha Hastings of U.S. on the starting block before the women's 400 metres heats during the 15th IAAF World Championships at the National Stadium in Beijing, China August 24, 2015. (Photo by Lucy Nicholson/Reuters)

Surfers surf at Surf Snowdonia in Conwy, North Wales, September 3, 2015. The surf park, which cost $22.8 million, opened on August 1 and is the world's first commercial artificial surfing lake, according to the company.The pool is 300 metres (980 ft) long and 110 metres (360 ft) wide, containing a total of six million gallons of water. A bi-directional snowplough-shaped wave-generation mechanism, towed on a cable between the two central towers, moves up and down the pool on a three-rail track, generating the waves. (Photo by Andrew Yates/Reuters)

Ukraine's Hanna Antonova competes during the 2015 World Pole Dance Championships held in Beijing, Sunday, April 12, 2015. (Photo by Ng Han Guan/AP Photo)

A bystander walks past a fresco by street artist Seth depicting a girl with a Ukrainian flag walking on tanks in Paris on March 01, 2022. (Photo by Joel Saget/AFP Photo)

Players of the USA celebrate in the dressing room following their team's victory in the 2019 FIFA Women's World Cup France Final match between The United States of America and The Netherlands at Stade de Lyon on July 07, 2019 in Lyon, France. (Photo by Maddie Meyer – FIFA/FIFA via Getty Images)

These Arab recruits line up in a barracks square in the British Mandate of Palestine, on December 28, 1940, for their first drill under a British solider. Some 6,000 Palestinian Arabs signed up with the British Army during the course of World War II. (AP Photo)

A competitor participates at the World Pole Dancing Championship 2012 held at the Volkshaus on November 10, 2012 in Zurich, Switzerland. The public's perception of pole dancing has recently changed to become a popular sport combining physical strength, technique and choreography. (Photo by Harold Cunningham)