Connected on 2007-11-13 12:30:00 from , VA, US
- 12:29pm
- Bugscope Team are you in Washington, Abe?
- Guest no
- Guest wow!!these pictures are unbelievable
- Guest i'm from florida
- Bugscope Team Cool!
- Bugscope Team cate is repsonsible for the cool images today :)
- Guest wow!!cool!! great
- Guest good job Cate
- Bugscope Team Hello Crystal!
- Bugscope Team thanks!
- Bugscope Team welcome to bugscope crystal
- Bugscope Team Greetings to NSF CDC. Hello Sara!
- Guest what will happen to the bug when you pass electron beam??
Bugscope Team the bug is almost always already dead by the time it's in the scope. we coat the bugs with gold/nickle palatium, and that would probably kill them.
- Bugscope Team the electron beam is giving us the images we see
- Bugscope Team so we hope it doesn't do anything adverse
- Guest no i mean is it possible to keep the insect/ bug./cell alive??
- Guest oh!!
- Bugscope Team the bug could be alive -- it could hold its breath by closing its spiracles
- Bugscope Team it is, in wet mode, and sometimes in hi-vac as long as the bug can hold it's breath, but it's hard to image them when they move around
- Bugscope Team but it would eventually die
- Bugscope Team there have been cases where some bugs are alive inside the vacuum scope, right scott?
- Bugscope Team and of course as Cate says it could be moving around, and then we would not be able to image it
- Guest its amazing
- 12:35pm
- Bugscope Team yes we have had, for example, a Monarch butterfly chrysalis in the 'scope for 4 hours, and later on it hatched
- Bugscope Team after we had taken it out of the 'scope
- Bugscope Team it was coated with gold-palladium too
- Guest i hav a term project based on the wet technique
- Guest wow!! tats a true survival story!!
- Bugscope Team we run the 'scope in HiVac mode for this of course
- Bugscope Team wet mode is pretty slow, often better to average to get good images
- Guest How will you coat gold or palladium??
- Bugscope Team or run the beam more slowly than usual
- Bugscope Team we have a sputter coater with a turbo vacuum pump, and we sputter the alloy gold-palladium onto the samples
- Guest Hi! My school is doing this on Thursday, so I thought I'd check it out. This is incredible!
Bugscope Team very cool! we are looking forward to your session on thursday crystal.
- Bugscope Team I don't remember what the percentage is of gold and palladium
- Bugscope Team Crystal thank you for chiming in. We look forward to seeing you.
- Bugscope Team the logos prep academy right?
- Bugscope Team No one is driving right now.

- Bugscope Team so I just changed to a new preset
- Bugscope Team when you are on with us you are able to drive the microscope.
- Bugscope Team ack! sorry, i just gave control to abe. abe you should now see controls for the scope on the right side of your browser window
- Bugscope Team that means you can have a very dynamic session, driving all of the time
- Guest oh!! ok..
- Guest how to use tat
- Bugscope Team change mag, move, adjust contrast/brightness, focus

- Bugscope Team you can even run off the stage and make the same mistakes we do
- Bugscope Team normally you would login as the teacher, and the teacher is automatically given control of the scope.
- 12:40pm
- Bugscope Team so now abe is driving
- Guest wow!! cool..thanx
- Bugscope Team we can confer control to anyone who wants it
- Bugscope Team one person at a time









- Bugscope Team this is a pseudoscorpion that one of the faculty here in the building brought us

- Bugscope Team so it is not an insect...

- Bugscope Team this is the first time we have seen one of these


- Guest what is it then???

- Bugscope Team normally by now the people we are working with would have logged in -- we don't know what has happened to them
- Bugscope Team Hi everyone!

- Bugscope Team um Good Annie is here -- she knows everything.
- Bugscope Team Even about noninsects.



- Bugscope Team Annie is our entomologist.

- Bugscope Team we have to keep Annie occupied or she will multitask during the session.
- Bugscope Team ha ha ha
- Guest oh!!hi Annie..

- 12:45pm

- Bugscope Team Annie is super high energy and cannot sit still for long.

- Bugscope Team when we make a preset like this we are tempting you to take the mag lower to see where you are.
- Bugscope Team Hi Abe

- Guest yeah





- Guest this is really cool
- Guest there are two insects in this image

- Bugscope Team yup, we have two little flies


- Bugscope Team here is a close up of a fly's compound eye

- Bugscope Team and this is tarsal claw...insect toes!
- Guest can you share some of your interesting experiences while taking these images?

- Bugscope Team okay, going to switch control of the scope to bluewhales now
- Bugscope Team yes, do you have any specific questions?

- Bugscope Team bluewhales, welcome to bugscope!
- Teacher sorry for joining so late, we are from nsf cdc
- Bugscope Team hello bluewhales
- 12:50pm
- Bugscope Team not a problem, i just tried calling you but couldn't get to your phone...
- Guest thanx for letting me control the drive
Bugscope Team no problem abe!
- Teacher what are we looking at
- Bugscope Team this is a claw on a beetle, magnified 205 x
- Guest Hi!!blue whales
- Bugscope Team annie might call this a tarsi, that just means it is an insect foot
- Bugscope Team annie is our local entymologist

- Guest About the specimen preparation , mode used, resolution, maximum magnification
- Bugscope Team entomologist!


- Bugscope Team yeah i know...i suck at spelling
- Bugscope Team ;)



- Bugscope Team i am watching you alex ;)
- Bugscope Team uh oh

- Bugscope Team Insects!!
- Teacher i have a question?
- Bugscope Team ask away!!
- Bugscope Team go ahead bluewhales
- Guest About the specimen preparation , mode used, resolution, maximum magnification
Bugscope Team The specimens are placed on double-sided carbon tape, grounded with silver paint, and coated with gold-paladium. We use standard high-vac mode (not wet mode). Scott, Cate..can you answer about the resolution and max. mag?
- Teacher has anyone ever used this program with preschoolers?
- Bugscope Team we usually have the teacher run the controls with preschoolers
- Bugscope Team i'm not sure bluewwhales, let's see what scott says
- Teacher i could imagine. thanks
- Bugscope Team there is a variety of ways the teacher can decide to run the session
- Teacher can we send in our own insects?
Bugscope Team yes of course! we love to see the different kinds of insects schools send
- 12:55pm
- Teacher can the still be alive?
Bugscope Team They will usually not be alive when we get them AND sometimes they will eat each other.
- Bugscope Team with preschoolers often the teacher runs the 'scope, and lately teachers have been using smartboards
- Bugscope Team please do not send live insects
- Bugscope Team Greetings to NSF CDC: Hello to Sara
- Bugscope Team but we are happy to have you send insects/bugs/arthropods
- Teacher thank
- Bugscope Team if they are alive, you can freeze them, and they just go to sleep
- Bugscope Team it is best to choose small critters -- rather than grasshoppers or cicadas or giant moths
- Teacher how long is the turn around between sending the insect and the actual live session
- Bugscope Team you decide when the session will be
- Teacher ok
- Bugscope Team Kendra does the scheduling with you via email
- Bugscope Team Bluewhales: Please give myrregards to Sara.
- Bugscope Team so if the samples are dry we could get them the day before the session
- Teacher this is our first time on the live session
- Teacher we will give your regards umesh
- Bugscope Team if they are not dry the 'scope may not pump down


- Teacher what are we viewing at this present moment
- Bugscope Team Bluewhales: There was a live session/demo on Oct. 2 via NSF Library with Sara. It will be great if the students help in bug collection as well.
- Bugscope Team please ask us questions about anything -- we have been doing this for 8 1/2 years.
- Bugscope Team and we have gone through changes in the setup, the software, hundreds of schools
- Bugscope Team on your end you have a lot of options regarding how you want to run things
- 1:00pm
- Bugscope Team I'm not sure what we are seeing right now, you could try to lower the mag a little bit so we can tell what this is









- Bugscope Team Bluewhales: We have had K to 12 (and college) students use Bugscope. I think with the new interface it will be great to have NSF CDC involvement. We also have a CDC here at Illinois. So, it may be good in future to have students from here and students from Arlington work on this.
- Bugscope Team this is a bug we did not recognize -- some sort of beetle
- Guest hi!!! can anyone answer about the max resolution and magnification for this high vaccuum mode?
- Bugscope Team if you drive to the head I might because able to identify it
- Bugscope Team you can see now that we were looking at the tarsi -- the forearm joints
- Bugscope Team 2 nm

- Bugscope Team for magnification, this scope can go to about 200,000x to see anything useful
- Bugscope Team you can get meaningful images at 200,000x although you can go much higher


- Bugscope Team hmmm
- Bugscope Team this is a field emission 'scope -- it has a field-emission electron gun

- Bugscope Team Annie is trying to figure out what this is


- Bugscope Team so yeah the ultimate resolution is 2 nm

- Bugscope Team My best guess is a soldier beetle...a cantharid
- Bugscope Team all of the images you obtain are saved to the database for your session

- Bugscope Team that is what cantharides come from?
- Bugscope Team cantharidin comes from cantharidae
- Bugscope Team Spanish fly.
- Bugscope Team yup
- Bugscope Team well no one is going to eat this
- Bugscope Team I am not 100% sure it is a cantharid though
- Bugscope Team we could dare Alex to...
- 1:05pm


- Bugscope Team um, what?
- Bugscope Team bluewhales please let us know whenever youn have a question or a problme
- Bugscope Team i just ate a big cheeseburger, i'm sure there were some dead bugs in there....
- Bugscope Team "canthar" is a prefix that sometimes refers to beetles in general...such as cantharophilous flowers: those that are pollenated by beetles
- Guest hey!!its very nice to see u all guys.. when is the next session?
Bugscope Team abe, you can check for session on the top of the bugscope website: http://bugscope.beckman.uiuc.edu
- Bugscope Team Crystal's session is 1 to 2 our time on Thursday.
- Guest oh!!thank you..now i'm leaving ..bbye all
- Teacher thanks so much for the walk through. We appreciate your timely responses. We are signing off. Have a great day. TTY SOON.
- Bugscope Team So we will be on before that, setting up.
- Bugscope Team bye bye bluewhales, great to have you on!
- Bugscope Team Thank You!
- Bugscope Team Crystal: I hope you are ready and excited about your session.
- Bugscope Team crystal is gone umesh, you can tell that by the greyed-out name
- Bugscope Team Hello Annie: I hope the Noyce presentation slides were helpful. I am working on a plan for another presentation. I would like to talk with you when convenient.
- Bugscope Team Ok Umesh. Let's discuss a time over email
- Bugscope Team I am free Thursday all day and Friday afternoon
- Bugscope Team I think the person who logged in from CDC is working for Sara (who directs CDC). So, this may have been a test session.
- 1:11pm
- Bugscope Team Annie: Is there a time on Thurs. that works best for you? Can we meet at NCSA?
- Bugscope Team well, we have a session at 1 pm, right?
- Bugscope Team today?
- Bugscope Team Thursday
- Bugscope Team yes yes, thursday at 1PM
- Bugscope Team http://bugscope.beckman.uiuc.edu/admin/test_results.php
- Bugscope Team Ben: Check your door
- Bugscope Team are we ready to close the session and get back to work?
- Bugscope Team yeah let's give Cate the 'scope
- Bugscope Team Annie: Well, let us meet closer to where you are? How about the Union?
- Bugscope Team OK...the union will work
- 1:16pm
- Bugscope Team Ben: The frame was the only one I had, but the card is new from Phillips (see note on the back).
- Bugscope Team Annie: Thanks I will see you at 12noon at the Union on Thurs.
- Bugscope Team Thanks Girl Pirate.
- Bugscope Team Scott: I am not following here.
- Bugscope Team Umesh it is all good. What happened to the session today?
- Bugscope Team They did ask whether we had ever worked with preschoolers.
- Bugscope Team I think the CDC wanted a test and they got one. I think it is important to them as the children are very young (ages 4 and up). Most of the children there are of program officers. So, everything is carefully done there.
- Bugscope Team close session? get back to work?'
- Bugscope Team Bye
- Bugscope Team and we told them the teacher usually drives for the students
- Bugscope Team i'll go upstairs
- 1:22pm
- Bugscope Team i'm back, logged in from my office. just let me know when you all are done and i'[ll close the session
- 1:29pm
- Bugscope Team thanks Alex.
- Bugscope Team Alex let's just stop now, unless someone else wants to work with this. Cate is taking high-res images.
- Bugscope Team I am logging out
- Bugscope Team hi crystal.
- Bugscope Team wait is Crystal back?
- Bugscope Team we were just about to close the session. did you want to drive more?
- Bugscope Team yay!
- Bugscope Team crystal has control of the scope.
- Bugscope Team I don't think Crystal ever got to drive.


- Bugscope Team oh wait, cate is driving the scope from the esem
- Bugscope Team Cate is stopping.
- Bugscope Team scott, can you get cates attention. i've locked the session, we can't let crystal drive until cate is not running the esem
- Bugscope Team exactly
- Bugscope Team Alex Cate is not driving now.
- Bugscope Team yeah I stopped and put it back as best i could
- Bugscope Team She knows Crystal is on.
- Bugscope Team okay, session is unlocked
- Bugscope Team crystal you have control!
- Bugscope Team Cool.
- Guest I would LOVE to drive it if you still have time! I am so worried I won't know what to do on Thursday! My kids were just finishing up a test!
- Bugscope Team You have control and are free to drive.
- Bugscope Team take some time now, i can hang out with ya
- Bugscope Team Please let us know when you have questions.

- Bugscope Team the presets, because we were dinking with some things in the meantime, may not go to exactly the right place anymore.



- 1:34pm



- Bugscope Team this is one of the claws of the pseudoscorpion, which is an arachnid

- Bugscope Team the rest of its body is below

- Bugscope Team to the south



- Bugscope Team when you click to drive, and then click to start moving in a particular direction, you need to click the mouse again to stop driving




- Bugscope Team let us know if you are having trouble negotiating the sample




- Bugscope Team good job centering on the mouth
- Bugscope Team now you can take the mag up if you wish
- Guest Thank you - we weren't sure we were looking at a mouth


- Bugscope Team you know we have never seen one of these before either

- Bugscope Team cool
- Guest What kind of insect is this?
- 1:39pm
- Bugscope Team it is related to spiders -- it is an arachnid
- Bugscope Team this is a pseudoscorpion or fake scorpion, as scott said, it is a spider
- Bugscope Team it is a very different looking spider that is for sure
- Bugscope Team it does not have a stinging tail like a scorpion

- Bugscope Team nice
- Bugscope Team the hairs are sensory setae

- Bugscope Team they help the little dude feel its food
- Bugscope Team now we are looking right into the mouth
- Guest This is cool! We just read about setae!
Bugscope Team that is great! annie, our local entomology will be so happy to hear that when she does the bugscope session with your school
- Bugscope Team you can adjust the focus if you want
- Bugscope Team if you make a change in one direction and it gets worse, do like you are doing and go the other way
- Bugscope Team *entomologist
- Bugscope Team when I try to tell you what to do you have already done it

- Bugscope Team here you can see the little "hands" on either side of the opening, that is so wild
- Guest Are we looking inside his mouth?
- Bugscope Team yeah it is just bizarre
- Guest Are those palps?
- Bugscope Team right into its mouth
- Bugscope Team yes they are

- Bugscope Team some palps have chemosensors on them

- Bugscope Team so the insect/arthropod can taste its food
- 1:44pm
- Guest Thank you - weren't sure what chemosensors were. I now have 10 kids around me, and we're all drooling!

- Bugscope Team they're like tastebuds, sort of, to us



- Bugscope Team often a seta will have a single tiny pore at its tip, and that is a chemosensor




- Bugscope Team this is all black and white because we are using electrons rather than light to collect the images

- Bugscope Team and you are driving a $600,000 electron microscope from your school





- Bugscope Team normally if you get lost you can go to a preset to return to 'civilization.'

- Bugscope Team here we have messed up the original presets, but we will not do that Thursday.
- Bugscope Team the electrons that are used to gather these images are smaller than the wavelength of light that human eyes can see.
- Bugscope Team We are so glad you came back!






- Bugscope Team yes so as Alex says we do not see color because color comes from the wavelengths of visible light

- Bugscope Team nice!


- Bugscope Team you can see it does not have a stinging tail like a real scorpion

- 1:49pm
- Bugscope Team a tiny hand
- Guest We were thinking the same thing. Does it have spinnerets? Were those by its mouth? Also, were we looking at the eye earlier?




- Bugscope Team I imagine its spinnerets are at the base of the abdomen

- Bugscope Team we mounted the little dude right on the base of its abdomen and thus are not able to see what is there
- Bugscope Team you are good at this
- Bugscope Team there is a preset of spider spinneretes, preset #4

- Guest You are so kind!
- Bugscope Team yeah, crystal, you are gonna do great on thursday









- Bugscope Team normally this would not happen but we goofed up the presets
- Bugscope Team this is silver paint, so it is near the sample

- Bugscope Team if you take the mag down further oytu may be able to see where you are

- Bugscope Team this is the edge of the world


- Bugscope Team throw a coke bottle over the edge...
- 1:54pm

- Bugscope Team now we are looking for samples...
- Bugscope Team this is a barren place, isn't it?
- Guest Okay, I can't find it, but I have to go anyway. Class is over. Thanks so much! I have to go pick up my daughter, but we are REALLY looking forward to Thursday!
- Bugscope Team great!
- Bugscope Team crystal, the presets will be fine for your session, they drift over time, that's why we do the presets right before your session starts
- Bugscope Team Thank You Crystal! We look forward to seeing you Thursday>
- Bugscope Team awesome, thursday it is
- Bugscope Team high noon
- Bugscope Team Okay I think that is it Alex San.
- Bugscope Team and by high noon i mean 1PM
- Bugscope Team Good job, you and Cate, setting up.
- Bugscope Team Over and out.
- Bugscope Team session is at 1PM CST
- Bugscope Team yeah 1 p.m.
- Bugscope Team coolness, me close session now