The Grid Makes Cooties up Close and Personal

Students in science class can thank scientists in Champaign, Illinois for up close and personal images of any creepy crawly insect that their science teacher can send in to be put under a high powered electron microscope. They can also thank grid computing. Grid computing supplies the power behind such a virtual experience. Teachers and students in the classroom may actually direct the placement and magnification of their specimens by using their own classroom computer. A special interface is designed to permit the use of the microscope by teachers and students while online. Unbelievably, students from as far away as Ireland have participated in this hands-and-eyes-and-brains-on experiment.
For students the experience is just plain creepy...but really educational and interesting. The bugscope is the forerunner of future applications of grid technology that will expand the boundaries of science education forever leading ultimately to an increase in the number of students tuned in.
For more info. about bugscope, check out http://www.bugscope.com/