Nikon's digital imaging systems aren't limited to consumers and professional photographers. The same expertise that makes for effective camera lenses also allows the company to make lenses for microscopes, which end up in the hands of scientists and students around the world.

Each year, Nikon invites anyone with a microscope to submit the best images they've captured with them, and each year, the winners capture scenes of amazing beauty, none of which were seen by humanity until a few hundred years ago. They're a great reminder that science hasn't only opened a window on distant galaxies and faraway planets; it's also given us a whole new view on the life and matter that make up the world we inhabit.

Wim van Egmond

Dorit Hockman

Alexandre Moreau

Pedro Barrios-Perez

Jan Michels

Mark Sanders

Geir Drange

Thomas Balla

Waldo Nell

Zhong Hua

All of these images and more are available from Nikon's contest site.