My lab actually does optics, though I myself belong to a different sub-group. Anyways, I read about it and as I have come to understand, super resolution microscopy is geared towards having a higher resolution of images than what the diffraction limit offers.

Standard microscopy techniques require light to operate. However, due to the wave-like property of light, we get what we call diffraction effects that ultimately limits the amount of information we can resolve in the micro scale. This is the diffraction limit.

Super resolution microscopy, however, allows one to take images with higher resolution than that, it goes beyond that limit. I am not too familiar with the theory and the techniques behind it but it could be big. It would mean being able to see the details of very, very small objects that we had no access to before.

Thinking of its possible applications, the most obvious would be in the field of medicine. It would aid us in studying pathogens, cancer cells among others on a much smaller scale. And we might find some things there that we haven't found before.