Wolfson OpenScience Laboratory - a promising online resource

From the Institute of Physics (@PhysicsNews) Classroom Physics newsletter :-

Online access to practical science with Wolfson lab
The traditional physics practical may have
had an occasional electronic facelift but
it has not changed much in decades. The
appearance is still of wooden benches,
wires and springs, for instance — very much
a hands-on environment.
Physics in professional laboratories is
different. Many physicists have no direct
physical connection with their experiments.
Actuators drive instruments and data
arrive through a computer linked to central
facilities such as CERN and satellites.
Conversations are with colleagues across
the world. It is an online environment.
The Open University has been awarded £1 m by the Wolfson Foundation to
reflect this change in practical science in its teaching. The Wolfson OpenScience
Laboratory will provide online access to practical science, not only to Open
University students but also to students across the globe. All science subjects will be
covered and many of the experiments will be relevant to schools.
The laboratory will include remote access to real laboratories and
observatories, for example optical and radio telescopes; virtual instruments such
as gamma-scattering apparatus with real data accessed interactively; immersive
3D field investigations with digitised real landscapes; and access to citizen science,
including “Treezilla”, a massive tree survey. The Open University will be collaborating
with other universities, schools and professional bodies and the priority will be
to improve access in developing countries For more information: visit www.open.
ac.uk/blogs/openscience

This includes the utterly brill Virtual Microscope - a web microscope (see screenshot above) with a selection of Histology & Pathology specimens to look at. The controls let you focus the microscope and take pictures.