Imagine standing inside a human cell. Not a cell drawn by an artist but a real cell that was scanned by lasers and then sent to a Virtual Reality (VR) headset! Once the data is in the correct format the cells can be 3D printed, incorporated into a CGI-style 3D animation or you could put on a Virtual Reality headset and be transported inside the cell.
The University of Glasgow are using VR technology to potentially radically change the way we teach biology and the way that students learn about the complex 3D structure of biological tissues. See the workflow involved in laser scanning a biological sample and processing it for sophisticated CGI-style animation, fully immersive Virtual Reality and interactive gaming. Looking at biological images is interesting enough but being able walk around the data, and pick it up, takes learning to a whole new level.