Sometimes bigger is better, but other times it's all about the details, and as you can see from the winners of Nikon's 2017 Small World Photomicrography competition, it doesn't get more detailed than this.

The competition, which is now in its 43rd year, attracts doctors, scientists, and macro photography enthusiasts from all over the world, and over 2000 people from 88 countries submitted their work for consideration this year. For those of you who don't know, photomicrography is the practice of taking a photograph through a microscope or similar magnifying device in order to capture the intricate details of things invisible to the human eye.

This year's top prize went to researchers at the Netherlands Cancer Institute, BioImaging Facility & Department of Cell Biology, who captured immortalised human skin cells expressing fluorescently tagged keratin. Scroll down to see the rest of the winners. The categories are divided into winners, honorable mentions, and images of distinction, and you can find the full list on the Nikon Small World website.

More info: Nikon Small World (h/t: mymodernmet)