High-school students now have real-time access from their classrooms to the Environmental Scanning Electron Microscope at Lehigh University's Nanocharacterization Lab, via Internet2. Students can see microbes enlarged to look like monsters, grains of salt bearing a strong resemblance to Mayan pyramids, and mysterious jungle scenery that turns out to be Velcro. (NASA is also remotely using Lehigh’s electron microscope, as well as other Nanocharacterization Lab equipment, in order to develop technology for a new space telescope, Mars rovers and spacecraft.)

Dr. John Mansfield talks about remote electron microscopy in this QuickTime video clip.