Christian Balderosdasco, 31, is being pulled up a mud pit after diving for 3 hours to look for gold on March 22, 2017 in Paracale, Philippines. Apart from tunneling and sifting sand, locals dive down murky swamps with the aid of a compressor with air flowing in a small tube for breathing, as they blindly swim under the mud for up to four hours to look for tiny rocks containing gold particles. For decades, local residents at Paracale town work in hazardous conditions scavenging under the earth and diving into tunnels filled with mud using only makeshift tools to mine for gold, often placing their health and lives at risk. (Photo by Jes Aznar/Getty Images)

One-month-old cubs given birth by giant panda “Su Shan” are seen at Shenshuping giant panda base on August 17, 2021 in Aba Tibetan and Qiang Autonomous Prefecture, Sichuan Province of China. (Photo by He Haiyang/VCG via Getty Images)

A United States Air Force (USAF) F-15 fighter jet travels at low altitude through the “Mach Loop” series of valleys near Dolgellau, north Wales on June 26, 2018. The Mach Loop valleys, situated between Dolgellau and Machynlleth, are regularly used by the military for operational low flying training which can take place as low as 76 metres from the nearest terrain. The USAF regularly use the loop to practice low-altitude flight, which confuses radar systems. (Photo by Oli Scarff/AFP Photo)

Reverend Simon Davis prays with the dancers before the Abbots Bromley Horn Dance in Abbots Bromley, Britain, September 12, 2016. The Abbots Bromley Horn Dance is an English folk dance dating back to the Middle Ages. (Photo by Darren Staples/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)

“The Mahamasthakabhisheka (or Mahamasthak Abhishek) is an important Jain festival held once every twelve years in the town of Shravanabelagola in Karnataka state, India. The festival is held in veneration of an immense 18 meter high statue of the Bhagwan (or Saint) Gomateshwara Bahubali. The anointing last took place in February 2006, and the next ceremony will occur in 2018”. – Wikipedia

Photo: A Jain Sadhu (2nd L) and devotees gather and pray at the feet of the monolithic statue of Jain sage Gomateswara during preparations for the Mahamastak Abhisheka ceremony February 7, 2006 in Shravanabelagola, India. The Mahamastak Abhisheka ceremony is held just once every twelve years where the statue will be bathed with milk, yogurt, saffron, gold coins and other religious items. The statue is said to be the world's largest monolith. The ceremony officially runs February 8-19. (Photo by Mario Tama/Getty Images)

Dont get catty. These roar-some images show the moment two female tigers came to blows in a bitter dispute over territory. Rarely ever seen in the wild let alone on camera, the dramatic images show a white Siberian tiger and orange-coloured tiger slashing ferociously at each others face and eyes. The intense altercation erupted into violence when the smallest of the pair, the orange striped tiger known as Shadow, attempted to expand its hunting ground. But white tiger, TiBo, wasnt willing to give up the ground without a fight and was forced to use its size and weight to put Shadow firmly back in her place. (Photo by Alex Kirichko/Caters News/SIPA Press)

These stunning coloured images show detailed x-ray images of everything from skulls to light bulbs. Artist Paula Fontaine, from Westminster Massachusetts, created the images using a process called digital map painting. To create the images the x-ray emission source – the head of the machine on an arm which focuses the beam – is placed over the object. Paula then retreats behind a shielded screen before activating the x-ray exposure. Here: Brain storm, conceptual composite X-ray. (Photo by Paula Fontaine/Barcroft Media)