Imagine teaching a class where every student has free access to world-class 3D specimen scans and the software to study them — and not one of their laptops can actually open the files.
That is the bind many instructors are in today.
The data are open and the software is free, but the scans are simply too large for an ordinary computer to handle. The gap hits hardest where it matters most: teaching-focused colleges that can’t afford high-powered workstations. So class time gets lost to wrestling with a roomful of mismatched laptops instead of doing the actual science.
MorphoCloud closes that gap. It gives every student the same ready-to-go workstation through their web browser — no setup, no special hardware, the software already installed and waiting. And with this relaunch, getting access is finally as simple as everything that follows: Onboarding is fully self-service, and the old approval wait is gone.
Joining
Go to morphocloud.org and click New user? Join. The flow is short: sign in with your ORCID, complete a brief onboarding form, verify your email, and accept the GitHub organization invitation. That form is the only one you will ever complete. Once you have joined, you can create instances immediately — no use-case description, no approval wait — and manage them through simple commands on your instance’s GitHub issue.
Step-by-step instructions are in the updated documentation, accessible from the site; start with the User Guide.
Email and Deliverability
All MorphoCloud email, including your instance connection details, goes only to the address you register and verify during onboarding, and it is sent from no-reply@morphocloud.org. Add that address to your safe-senders list so messages do not land in spam.
Use the Landing Page, Not a Bookmark
Rather than bookmarking the GitHub repository, use the Instance Management link on morphocloud.org. Routing through the landing page means you always see current instance availability and any JetStream2 or GitHub outage notices before attempting to use your instances. If something seems unresponsive, check there first.
Session Timeouts
To manage their higher cost, the larger flavors — g3.xl, g4.xl, r3.large, and r3.xl — are automatically shelved after 2 hours of a session rather than the standard 4. The default g3.large remains at 4 hours.
Regardless of flavor, you can keep extending a session for as long as you are actively using the instance: respond to the extend session? popup, or click the ExtendInstanceSession icon on the desktop.
Questions
Email portal@morphocloud.org.