While many of us have used a computer network to send E-mail, how about using it to remotely control an electron microscope? That's exactly what Telemicroscopy refers to.

Up to now electron microscopy (EM) has been conducted typically in a darkened enclosure, with the operator sitting in the dark for hours staring at a dim phosphor screen. This paradigm was not, however, closely followed during the telemicroscopy demonstration at the SIGGRAPH 1992 meeting in Chicago, where microscopic images were acquired on-line over the Internet high-speed computer network from the intermediate-high voltage electron microscope located at the San Diego Microscopy and Imaging Resource. Stereo-pairs were displayed on a color projection screen in front of many spectators and camera crews.