Connected on 2010-03-15 16:15:00 from Chicago, IL, US
- 3:29pm
- Bugscope Team We are pumping down.
- Bugscope Team 1.8 x 10-4
- Bugscope Team 1.7
- Bugscope Team 1.6
- 3:35pm
- Bugscope Team 1.5
- Bugscope Team 1.4
- Bugscope Team almost there
- 3:42pm
- Teacher Hi
- Bugscope Team hey tony, welcome back
- Bugscope Team Tony we are setting up.
- Bugscope Team making the presets for your session. Cool?
- Teacher Yeah.



- 3:53pm




- 3:58pm





- 4:04pm





- 4:10pm

- Bugscope Team Alright that is it. You are the supreme ruler, Dr C.
- Bugscope Team hi leticia
- Bugscope Team Hi Leticia! Are you with Dr Clishem?
- Bugscope Team we are ready anytime tony
- Bugscope Team or are you from the Outer World somewhere?
- Bugscope Team hi chad, welcome to bugscope
- Student hello alex... this is great
- Student hello
- Bugscope Team Hello!
- Bugscope Team Where are you?

- 4:16pm
- Student northeastern
- Bugscope Team Oh cool.
- Guest Thank you for sharing your technology with us today!
- Bugscope Team no prolemo
- Bugscope Team yeah no problemo

- Bugscope Team the fruit fly's eye is a little desiccated
- Bugscope Team you can still see its antennae
- Bugscope Team go ahead and ask us any questions you may have

- Bugscope Team and a minute ago we could see brochosomes, from a leafhopper, on the surface of the compound eye.



- Guest what are the little parts that look like rice?
- Student what are the rice looking things on the eye
Bugscope Team those are called setae (pronounced see-tee)
- Guest correct

- Bugscope Team setae help insects to sense their environment
- Student wow
- Student what do the see tee do
- Bugscope Team setae can be mechanosensory or chemosensory, among other things
- 4:21pm
- Bugscope Team these setae are thought to hep the fly sense wind movement while flying
- Student how do they sense their environment

- Bugscope Team but some setae near the mouth might sense chemicals, for tasting and smelling
- Student nm


- Bugscope Team well, since insects have a hard exoskeleton, which can't feel anything, the setae stick through that and connect to nerves underneath
- Student why do they have ridges
- Student hello
- Bugscope Team and the setae sense temp, chemicals, movement, etc. and transmit that info to the nerves

- Bugscope Team the compound eye is made up of thousands of individual facets, each with a lens in it, the facet is called an ommatidium
- Student this is really coollll
- Student nice whats the white flacks around the setae
Bugscope Team well, i'm not sure what that big white blob is, probably juju


- Guest juju?
- Student juju???????


- Guest ty
- Guest gotchya
- Student head and shoulders

- Bugscope Team juju = not part of the bug or any symbiotic organism


- Bugscope Team right, dandruff could be juju, although it does come from us, so maybe not :)


- Student lol
- Bugscope Team insects have TONS of setae, all over
- Guest why is the wing lined with spikes?
- Bugscope Team they must have setae, or else they wouldn't feel anything
- Student what do the hairs do on the wings
- Bugscope Team those spikes are setae again
- Bugscope Team the setae help the insects to know what's going on around it in its environment
- Bugscope Team sensory feedback
- Bugscope Team these setae are probably mechanosensory, they feel wind movements, and aid in the flight of the insect


- Student why do they differ in shape than the ones on the eye
Bugscope Team good questions. i'm not 100% sure, but different needs develop different setae


- 4:26pm

- Student different nerves?
Bugscope Team hmm, good question, but i'm not sure about the nerves under the exoskeleton, but yeah, probably the nerve is different so that it can sense different inputs
- Student thank you

- Bugscope Team we aren't sure exactly what this is, but it is an aquatic insect and it kinda looks like a roly poly
- Student do all bugs have setae
Bugscope Team well, i think all, yes, but i could be wrong
- Teacher Could we now open up the controls to the students?
Bugscope Team yes, just let us know who wants control
Bugscope Team just let us know who you would want to have control
- Teacher Cindy will now take control
- Bugscope Team cindy has control now




- Student what is the smallest part of exoskeleton and what are those bumps on the claw

- 4:31pm


- Bugscope Team the claw here has some juju stuck to it. looks like some plant material and some other stuff

- Guest what is the smallest part of exoskeleton
Bugscope Team hmm, well, the exoskeleton covers the entire insect, so i'm not sure what the smallest part would be...


- Guest what would be interesting to look at on this specimen?
Bugscope Team the scope can magnify many times over, and there is detail of great interest if you zoom up, give it a try
- Student what end are we looking at
- Bugscope Team this is one of those insects that rolls into a ball when you disturb it
- Teacher Could you please let Wafa take over the controls?
Bugscope Team wafa has control
- Bugscope Team wafa has control

- Bugscope Team there are spiracles (breathing holes), palps, mandibles, bacteria, compound eyes, crochets, prolegs, etc. etc. etc.
- Bugscope Team also, look at the different presets, you can click on any preset and it'll move you to that location



- Student is this the head of the bug
Bugscope Team yep the head is small, but it's near the top
- Bugscope Team waya, you have control

- Teacher wafa's controls are sort of frozen

- 4:36pm
- Bugscope Team wafa, i mean, sorry
- Bugscope Team hmm, wafa, try refresh F5

- Bugscope Team maybe the network is having problems, we are seeing wafa go in and out of connection
- Bugscope Team are you all on a wired network, or wireless?



- Bugscope Team okay tony, you have control again
- Teacher We are wired.

- Bugscope Team are you able to control tony?

- Bugscope Team if not, let me know
- Bugscope Team try clicking on a preset
- Student what are the two things surrounding the mouth
Bugscope Team those are mandibles, they help it to shove food into it's mouth, or cut up food
- Teacher It's thinking.

- Bugscope Team hmm, something must be wrong, hold on
- Student thank you




- Guest who uses bugscope te most elementary, highschool or universities
Bugscope Team it is K through 12, although sometimes we have teachers and/or college students
- Student more juju
- Bugscope Team wait, those are palps i think not mandibles
- Bugscope Team palps help taste the food, or smell it
- Bugscope Team okay, i think i fixed the scope, tony give it a try again, i'm unlocking now
- Student really
- Student thats crazy
- Teacher Should I try to control now?
Bugscope Team yep, give it a try
- 4:41pm
- Bugscope Team yay!

- Bugscope Team chas conway built the entire 2.0 website, it is much better than 1.0

- Bugscope Team scott robinson has been with bugscope since 1998
- Bugscope Team scott is one of the original developers
- Guest the whole thing is quite impressive!!
Bugscope Team yeah, when chas built this website, i was like, dude, you RULE!!!

- Bugscope Team cate and i came on later. cate is an electron microscopist. i'm a sysadmin

- Guest I agree!!


- Guest Can we use this from home, too?
Bugscope Team anyone in the world can login to a session live, as guest...
- Bugscope Team scott is also an electron microscopist, and he's also manager of this microscopy suite lab

- Teacher Let wafa try again.
- Bugscope Team all you need to run bugscope is a browser
- Student more and different setae?
Bugscope Team these look like mechanosensory setae again, sensing wind



- Guest that is cool are class is going to teach were in education







- Student how much does this bug weigh
Bugscope Team i have no idea!!! but good question. i wonder if it's possible to build a scale in the scope.. probably not because the sample needs top be absolutely still

- Bugscope Team we try to chat in a way the kids will enjoy it. we are not stiff science geeks. well we may be that, but we try to make science fun for the kids.


- Student how does the juju stick to the body
Bugscope Team well, dust collects on anything, but before the bug goes into the scope, we coat it with gold-palladium, which helps the electrons bounce off the sample


- 4:46pm

- Bugscope Team so the dust gets trapped inside the gold-palladium
- Teacher Please give Magdasz the controls
- Student gold palladium please explain what palladium mean
Bugscope Team it is a metal compound that is very thinly coated onto the sample. this is required for any electron microscope, otherwise the sample would charge up and you wouldn't get any image at all
- Bugscope Team but some juju is cool to look at, like pollen, bacteria, brochosomes, etc.
- Student how much gold is needed to coat a fly
Bugscope Team very little, there is a special machine that breaks up the gold-palladium into a very fine dust that settles onto the sample



- Guest I don't see the presets
- Guest ok
- Student thank you guys













- Student on the eye


- Bugscope Team each facet of the compound eye has a lens in it
- Student what is the name of the long thing by the eyes on the head
Bugscope Team well, the thing coming out of the middle of the head is the proboscis
- Bugscope Team and the lens is fixed, unlike human eyes that can move the lens around




- Bugscope Team the long thing coming out the side, that was an antenna
- 4:51pm


- Bugscope Team the proboscis curves up, like a party favor
- Student nice info
- Bugscope Team but this is the proboscis that the fly uses to feed. it pukes on it's dinner, then sucks up the puke and food with the proboscis... yum!!!!
- Bugscope Team focusing can be hard
- Student does it act as a tongue
Bugscope Team well, i don't think so, the palps would be more like a tongue. but if the proboscis had setae on it (not sure if it does) then those setae would probably taste/smell things...
- Bugscope Team try one way, if it gets worse, go another way
- Bugscope Team nice!!!!




- Guest what were the black spots
Bugscope Team not sure, what black spots?
- Student does the puke dissolve the food
Bugscope Team totally
- Guest why does it need to vomit to eat its food?
Bugscope Team it can only digest liquids, so it's vomit turns hard food into a liquid and thus is can eat it



- Bugscope Team the puke works like our saliva to break down the food

- Student do you have any spides



- Guest I think they were on the leg...

- Guest ew thanks
- Student i bet
- Guest what is that
- Guest what are we looking at?
- Bugscope Team try clicking on the scale bar in the lower left, it'll tell you
- Bugscope Team well, it'll tell you what preset we are on
- Teacher We are going to drive around for about 15 more minutes
- Bugscope Team but as to what this is specifically, i'm not sure, if you zoom out i can tell you
- Guest its the eye?
Bugscope Team well, no, this is a part in front of the eye i think? try zooming out
- 4:56pm
- Bugscope Team and try focusing too... let me know if you need help
- Teacher Give Tony (Dr. C) the controls.
- Bugscope Team focus can be tricky to control
- Guest so what does it do?
Bugscope Team what does focus do? is changes the magnification very slightly
- Bugscope Team i would generally stay away from focus unless you aboslutely need it


- Guest no not that

- Bugscope Team still not sure what this is?
- Guest the part thats in front of the eye
Bugscope Team the curved thing? that's the proboscis
- Guest what is the farthest school that has participated on bugscope??
Bugscope Team china, japan...




- Bugscope Team this is a small moth
- Student can we look at the spiracle breathing hole
Bugscope Team sure, ask tony to click on preset #7
- Bugscope Team oops, sorry, had it locked, just unlocked it
- Bugscope Team try preset #7 tony

- Bugscope Team this is a spiracle
- Teacher What's a true bug
Bugscope Team it is an order of species that comprises about 80,000 different insects
- Bugscope Team this is how bugs breathe
- Teacher give chad controls
- Student can we rotate 90 degrees
Bugscope Team well, you can sometimes do things like that with an ESEM, but it's complicated, and for bugscope we don't do that.... sorry
- Guest What is coming out of the hole?
Bugscope Team sometimes spiracles will have setae or some kind of chitin that helps to block stuff from falling into it
- 5:02pm
- Student its cool
- Student what if juju becomes stuck in the hole
Bugscope Team good question, it has like nose hairs, or setae hairs
- Student what is chitin
Bugscope Team chitin is like your finger nails, the exoskeleton is made up of chitin





- Student i am i buggin you guys with all the questions
Bugscope Team heh, buggin is cool when in bugscope
- Bugscope Team wow cool! that pattern looks like the inside of the exoskeleton, i'm not sure i've seen that before. VERY COOL!
- Bugscope Team yeah, that pattern is on the inside of the exoskeleton. good job tony, you are doing great.
- Bugscope Team check out the scale bar lower left
- Bugscope Team 5 um is 5 microns
- Bugscope Team one micron = one millionth of a meter
- Bugscope Team microns are micrometers
- Teacher What should we absolutely look at before we quit?
Bugscope Team try preset #1, it's a pollen grain

- Bugscope Team nice


- Bugscope Team that ball with spikes, that's a pollen grain

- Bugscope Team we often find pollen grains on insects
- Bugscope Team the spikes make it easy for it to get caught in stuff, like setae
- Bugscope Team also, mold spores
- Bugscope Team bees, which we didnt see today, are very hairy

- Student what is a leafhopper
Bugscope Team they are little green insects that you might notice hopping in the grass, especially if you disturb it




- Bugscope Team a leafhopper is a common insects, you've seen them before
- 5:07pm

- Student whats the background

- Guest what is the big whole in the body?
Bugscope Team that's where someone stuck it with a pin for a display box


- Bugscope Team insects have guts, just like humans do
- Teacher Cool


- Bugscope Team so when this dude got nailed, the guts probably came all out and stuff...
- Student who funds you guys
Bugscope Team the projects was originally funded years ago, but now we work simply on the side, to keep this project going. some people are woking on getting more funding though...
- Guest that is not right!


- Bugscope Team we stick these insects onto double stick carbon tape. it often looks like it has popped bubbles. we also sometimes use silver paint on top of that to help 'glue' the insects down
- Guest Is this actual table salt or some other type?
Bugscope Team this is table salt, but from wendy's restaurant
- Student thats crazy you should ask uncle sam
Bugscope Team yeah, people are writing grants as we speak


- Bugscope Team wendy's puts something in their salt that makes it look like this. other salt doesn't look so interesting


- Guest I hope you get the funding! Thank you for taking your own time to provide us with such a great science tool!!
- Guest what do they put in with their salt?
Bugscope Team scott may know, but he's offline now, sorry


- Student good for you guys





- Bugscope Team thanks chadvanp






- Bugscope Team they may put sodium azide in the salt but that is only a guess
- Bugscope Team scott is back






- Student what is azide
Bugscope Team NaN3

- 5:12pm




- Bugscope Team so you have double bonds between the N's
- Guest thank you!!
- Bugscope Team Thank You!
- Bugscope Team thanks cindy, good work!
- Teacher I think we are done. Time to go to FAT SANDWICH COMPANY.
- Bugscope Team I am sorry I had a tour right when you started.
- Student of course what was i thinking
- Bugscope Team hmmm, i'm hungry
- Student nan3 i should of known
- Bugscope Team good job tony, good session
- Bugscope Team yeah sounds good
- Teacher I've just told my undergrads here to watch Ms. Schaab's session on Thursday. in Park Ridge. Ciao!
- Bugscope Team later guys!
- Guest thanks bye
- Bugscope Team remember your bugscope member page: http://bugscope.beckman.illinois.edu/members/2010-015
- Bugscope Team nice session everyone, closing it out now