Consider Google maps: e.g., now amateur anthropologists and geographers have located previously unknown archeological sites.

I would expect a great deal of new observational discovery should a desktop microscope become economically viable. And once a phenomenon is observed, minds turns to ways to harness that phenomenon.

It's difficult to harness a supernova since it's so far out there, but anything viewable with a microscope is available _here_ and probably in abundance.