Ever wanted to manipulate the magnified image of a microscope sample on an oversized touch screen? Well, now you can. Researchers have developed just such a system, which uses "Web-based virtual microscopy" and a touch screen to make it possible to see 1000-fold magnifications on an "in your face" scale. 
From the press release:
Biological samples are digitized using a microscopy scanner and stored on an image server. Samples displayed on the screen are then continuously read from the server over the internet and the size of a single sample can be up to 200 gigabytes.
In the release, Johan Lundin, one of the brains behind the setup, name-checks not one but three geek-tastic cultural touchstones, comparing the system to "an iPad on steroids" and "a combination of Google Maps and the user interface from the movie Minority Report." 
I have to say, watching video of the system in action did bring to mind images of a pre-freakout-on-Oprah's-couch Tom Cruise doing his thing with a futuristic video screen.
The research was done by the Institute for Molecular Medicine Finland and Multitouch Ltd.
- Thomas Blair