The Earth Simulator Center in Yokohama, Japan, has a new attraction along with its supercomputer: a mini-theatre that will allow scientists to interact with data in three dimensions.

The theatre extends the experience of working with complex dynamic systems. "You can place a massless virtual dust particle in the middle of a typhoon and watch what happens to it in the same way that a golf player drops grass to test the wind," says Akira Kageyama, a simulation specialist at the centre. He hopes the facility will open to all Earth Simulator users in the near future.

Visitors have been known to duck to avoid oncoming objects thrown by a virtual typhoon or even to run into the walls while viewing the inside of Earth's core.