Each year, Nikon provides a reminder that the world around us is stunning in its beauty, and we don't have to travel anywhere to see it. Instead, we simply have to magnify what's around us in the first place (and maybe hit it with a bit of UV light so it fluoresces). Everything from a simple green algae to curtain fibers to the legs of a caterpillar reveal details that we'd never guess existed, and all it takes to see them is the right microscope.

Below is just a small sampling of the images that were honored in this year's contest.

Normally, I'd recommend going to the Nikon Small World website to see the rest, but it seems to have had problems with an expired certificate. If things change on that front, we'll update this story.

This is the second competition from Nikon this year. While the static image contest has been going on for a while, the company added a video version recently. We have excerpts from that below.

Listing image by Emre Can Alagöz