Connected on 2012-05-23 10:00:00 from , Maryland, United States
- 9:07am
- Bugscope Team good morning!

- Bugscope Team Welcome to Bugscope!
- Teacher Hi there! How are you?
- Bugscope Team our connection time with you is in about 50 minutes, correct?
- Bugscope Team we just put the sample in and will be making presets for you as soon as the vacuum is good enough and we have adjusted the 'scope
- Bugscope Team if for some reason the timing is incorrect, we will work to get things set up sooner; please let us know
- Teacher Yes 50 minutes is correct. Let me know when all is set :)
- Bugscope Team cool. we will likely be able to give you control of the 'scope beforehand
- 9:12am
- Teacher Kids are excited! Thanks for the opportunity!
- Bugscope Team sweet. we are looking forward to this as well.
- 9:20am




- 9:26am



- 9:34am


- Guest heeeeey
- Guest heeeeey
- Guest hyfr!!!!
- Bugscope Team hi Jaz!
- Guest hi scot
- Guest WHAT UP BIG BUG
Bugscope Team Hi Bardi!
- Guest loser

- Guest bigger bug
- Bugscope Team We're still setting up.
- Guest yummy
- Guest yolo
- Bugscope Team Hi Mrs L.
- Bugscope Team We're setting up for a session that starts at 11 eastern time.
- Guest hola (;

- Bugscope Team So once we get started we will need to give our attention to the school in Maryland we're working with.
- Bugscope Team But you are welcome to watch and check things out.
- Guest Que onda
- Guest hola compadres
- Guest OK
- 9:39am
- Guest hello
- Guest jaz is lame
- Guest HI SIENTISTES
- Guest Is touchin dem bugs fun?
Bugscope Team you have to be careful so you don't break or smash them, and you also want to orient them correctly
- Guest nice bug ( ;
- Guest hola
- Guest cool bug
- Bugscope Team some of them are so small...
- Guest wat do orient mean/
- Guest ??????
- Guest wat part of the bug is tht
- Guest i like that bug (;
- Guest is that bug pkayful ? ( ;
- Guest hola
- Guest sup
- Guest how big is that bug?
Bugscope Team this ant is maybe 3 mm long

- Guest hello
- Guest what color is the bug?
- Guest IS THAT A MOSUITO?
- Guest Thats preety big ; )
- Guest its gray marcus
- Guest THAT LOOKS LIKE ANTS
- Guest NESHAA where are youuuu
- Guest wat kind of ant is tht
- Guest Thats gross
- Guest thats small
Bugscope Team yeah it is really small; makes it tricky to put the sample together
- Guest Orale
- Guest sick!!!!
- Guest Ive never seen these things close up
- Guest Thats preety nice
- Guest Thats preety nice
- Guest grosss
- Guest how does it have babies
Bugscope Team the queen is the one who lays eggs; all the other ants help but don't actually breed
- Guest Stop the insanity!!
- Guest nesha??? neeeesssshhhhhaaaa!!!

- Guest TACOS
- Guest what do bugs,humans,and animals have incommon
- Guest what do bugs,humans,and animals have incommon
- Guest cuanto puede vivir este insecto (:
- Guest bradshaw....
- Guest COOL
- Guest COOL
- Guest wat is tht
- Guest WOW 1 QUEEN HAVING TONS OF BABYS WOW
- Guest SHOW FIRE ANTS
Bugscope Team Bardi I believe fire ants look much like these.
- Guest yummy
- Guest were do they live

- Guest what is that?
- Guest are there king ants
- Guest what are those squares
- Guest thats pollen?
- Guest i want a king ANT
- Guest COOL!!
- Guest thats pollen?
- Guest Is there a queen ant?
- Guest sweet!!!
- Guest were is the king ant
Bugscope Team there are no kings; when you see flying ants, those are males, unless it happens to be the queen
- Guest Where do the fire ants live
- Guest Swagg Spiracle
- Guest What type of ant is it
- Guest ants fly?
- Guest boss
- Guest THATS COOL ITS IN BLACK AND WHITE THOUGH
Bugscope Team yeah we are using electrons rather than light, and the images we see show up as signal, in gray scale
- Guest yes cj -_-
- 9:44am
- Guest a lot jaz
- Guest what type of ant is it
- Guest about how many ants live in a colony
- Guest i asked scot cj
- Bugscope Team if you see scanning electron micrographs in color, they have been colorized
- Guest .
- Guest i didn't know ants could fly!
- Guest HOW MANY BABYS DO THEY HAVE AT ONE TIME
- Guest ants fly?
- Guest flying ants do
- Guest wAT IS A silver fish
- Guest ...
- Guest oh wow
- Guest how many ants are in a colony?
- Guest WHAT DO THE GUTS LOOK LIKE ]
- Guest i lik ants
- Guest How many babies can an ant have?
Bugscope Team well into the tens and maybe hundreds of thousands
- Guest you spelled pregnant wrong luis
- Guest wow
- Guest how many kinds of ants r there
- Guest thats alot of babies
- Guest Messi Sucks !!!
- Guest Messi Sucks !!!
- Guest THATS ALOT
- Guest HOW MANY CAN HEY HAVE AT A TIME
- Guest ESE ES RONALDO
- Guest Hi Marcus...
- Guest what is dat.?! ^
- Guest How many ants are in a colony

- Guest HEY
- Guest ants ar cool?!?!?!?
- Guest how do bugs get pregnat
Bugscope Team it depends on the insect, but I think you could say that most have internal fertilization
- Guest What are baby ants called?
- Guest nasty spiracle
- Guest HOW BIG ARE ANTS COMPARED TO AN AVERAGE MAN?
- Guest how many yearS of college do you need to become an entomologist
- Bugscope Team there are said to be more than 10,000 known species of ants
- Guest shhhh..........ants are coming...RUN
- Guest how big are ants
- Guest CAN WE SEE BUTTERFLIES
- Guest How do ants find food
- Guest why are ants small
- Guest how big ar ants
- Guest ?
- Guest ?
- Guest i killed an ant yesterday with nesha.... i sowy
- Guest i killed an ant yesterday with nesha.... i sowy
- Guest HOW BIG ARE ANTS COMPARED TO AN AVERAGE MAN?
Bugscope Team much smaller, luckily for us
- Guest How many times their own weight can they lift
- 9:49am
- Guest how does pollen affect your allergies
- Guest what do ants do in winter?
- Guest where do all bug go in the winter
- Guest HOW MANY ANTS WOULD IT TAKE TO REACH AROUND THE WORLD?
- Guest WAT DO THEY DO WHEN ITS WINTER
- Guest why do mosquito's suck blood
- Guest cuando tiempo pueden vivir
- Guest 10 times their weight i think
- Guest why do they have antanna ???
Bugscope Team the antennae are important in collecting chemical scents that seem to override other senses in determining what the ants do
- Guest they die marcus
- Guest ants are gonna take over the world one day!!1
- Guest HOW MANY ANTS WOULD IT TAKE TO REACH AROUND THE WORLD?
- Guest hi
- Guest yes

- Guest yes i want to control
- Guest Can ants see color
Bugscope Team some can and some cannot; some ants do not even have eyes
- Guest YES
- Guest yes yolo
- Guest Can ants see color
- Guest HOW MANY ANTS WOULD IT TAKE TO REACH AROUND THE WORLD?
- Guest YES
- Teacher Hi there, Are we ready for kids to control some of the images?
Bugscope Team Cate is just about finished. Almost
- Guest Ssssssshhhhh
- Guest yes

- Guest can ants see color
- Guest HOW MANY ANTS WOULD IT TAKE TO REACH AROUND THE WORLD?
- Teacher OK thanks
- Guest how does pollen affect allergies
- Guest nesha... are you out there? in space?
- Guest CAN ANTS SEE HUMANS
Bugscope Team yes they can for sure
- Guest HOW MANY ANTS WOULD IT TAKE TO REACH AROUND THE WORLD?
- Guest can ants see color
- Guest how does pollen affect allergies
- Guest R THEY SCARED
- Guest OF US
- Guest were are flying ants
- Guest how does pollen affect allergies
- Guest CAN ANTS SEE COLOR
- Guest has anyone ever seen the movie ant bully?
- Guest how long does an ant live
- Guest R THEY SCARED OF US
- Guest how does pollen affect allergies
- Guest hi
- Guest ,;
- Guest LOP;{
- Guest Is ant bully based on a true story??
- Guest where do all bugs go in the winter
- Guest how does pollen affect allergies
- Guest yes i hav seen ants
- Guest do ants see color?
- Guest why do ants bite?
- Bugscope Team alright if you all from Mrs L's class can let us work with today's school, I would appreciate it
- Guest DO ANTS BE OUT MORE IN THE SUMMER
- Guest R THEY SCARED OF US?
- Guest ok SCOT
- Guest isn't there 69 different ants ?
- Guest do ants see color?

- Guest if a mosquito bites you can you get the disease it carries
- Guest jq4hr\
- Guest Thank you, we will just "listen in"
- Guest ants fly???????????
- Guest flying ant do!!
- Guest yes cj -__-
- Guest byye
- Guest adios
- Bugscope Team Thanks, You All!
- 9:55am
- Bugscope Team Cate is finishing up the presets, NHMS.

- Teacher OK :)
Bugscope Team you have control of the microscope now!
- Teacher Woo Hoo!
- Bugscope Team this is a small beetle

- Bugscope Team and this is salt, from a Wendy's restaurant




- Bugscope Team as far as we have seen, only Wendy's has salt like this, and actually they may not have it anymore
- Bugscope Team the sodium chloride forms cubic crystals, like it should, but the pattern is interrupted by something
- Teacher this is michae
Bugscope Team Hi Michae!

- Bugscope Team oops sorry Hi Michael!


- Teacher this is michael have you scanned pepper before
Bugscope Team I don't think we have, but we have looked at sugar, which isn't nearly as exciting as salt

- 10:00am

- Bugscope Team pepper would not form crystals because it comes in flakes from pepper plants, as far as I know...
- Bugscope Team this is an odd mosquito we found

- Bugscope Team it seems to be a female because it does not have ornate antennae


- Bugscope Team this may be a different kind of fly, but it resembles a mosquito in a lot of ways
- Teacher this is tanner what kind of mosquito doesnt bite
Bugscope Team there is a kind of mosquito that feeds on nectar, even the females, and it does not bite, but I don't know that they live here


- Bugscope Team with almost all mosquitoes, the females are the ones that suck blood, and the males either do not eat or live on nectar from flowers

- Bugscope Team because I am working next to the microscope, I can make small changes in what we see using the microscope

- Bugscope Team these are individual facets of the compound eye, and they are a bit desiccated
- Bugscope Team oops not now!

- Bugscope Team these ommatidia look really good!
- Bugscope Team individual facets of the compound eye = ommatidia
- 10:05am


- Teacher hello my name is griffin what does desccated mean
Bugscope Team Hi Griffin! 'Desiccated' means 'dried out.'





- Teacher can electron microscopes scan color
Bugscope Team no. when you see colored images from an electron microscope, they have been artificially colored
- Bugscope Team electrons are super small, smaller than atoms; and atoms are super small themselves, much smaller than the wavelengths of visible light

- Teacher hi my name is ciara and sydney
Bugscope Team Hi Ciara! Hi Sydney!
- 10:10am
- Bugscope Team these little stalks are called tenent setae -- they are super tiny 'hairs' that help the fly cling to surfaces
- Teacher Hello how come horseflys bite us
Bugscope Team the same reason mosquitos bite us. They are after a blood meal. Females need it to lay eggs
- Bugscope Team on the ends of the tenent setae we see a bulbous area that is sticky
- Teacher oh thats cool :)
- Bugscope Team now we can see more of the end of the fly's arm, or leg
- Bugscope Team you can see its claws
- Teacher How much do these microscopes cost
Bugscope Team this one cost $600,000 but that was over 10 years ago.
- Bugscope Team as well as where we just were -- where the tenent setae are
- Teacher WOH11
- Bugscope Team companies sell tabletop scanning electron microscopes, where schools with a good budget might be able to afford to buy one
- Bugscope Team yes you are driving a $600,000 microscope from your classroom


- Teacher is there anything stronger then this?
Bugscope Team it depends on what you want to see; this kind of microscope is best for this kind of imaging
- Bugscope Team the microscope you are using today is a lot bigger. The main component is about the size of a refrigerator box
- Teacher ok
- Bugscope Team we can for example see atoms with other microscopes, but we would not be able to see insects nearly the same way we do now
- 10:16am
- Teacher what kind of training do you need to operate one?
Bugscope Team here you just ask Cate to show you how; it takes an hour or so
- Teacher LOL Yeay Cate! What do you use it for there?
- Bugscope Team actually this microscope will do other things as well; we can use it to perform elemental analysis on samples, for example


- Bugscope Team this beetle appears to be waving to us
- Bugscope Team people look at all kinds of samples. People have looked at different kinds of bacteria, cells, leaves, soil samples, carbon nanotunes

- Bugscope Team nanotubes
- Bugscope Team you can see its mandible


- Teacher What is the coolest thing you have looked at?
Bugscope Team I like brochosomes, which are produced by leafhoppers, and some pollen is really cool; we also see things that people have fabricated that are super small; it's hard to say what is the coolest. one person works with bacterial biofilms and comes up with beautiful things we don't always recognize
- Teacher We can send some to you :)
- Teacher You can have them all! ;)
- Teacher We should have sent a stink bug. They are invaded MD....do you have them there?
Bugscope Team yes, but not necessarily the same species. we don't have the really bad ones yet.
Bugscope Team I should correct myself, and say that they're making their way in.
- 10:21am


- Bugscope Team this is a spiracle, through which insects breathe




- Teacher Are insects and other animals affected by pollen like we are?
Bugscope Team probably not the same way, but we have seen houseflies with their thoracic spiracles partially blocked with pollen grains

- Bugscope Team 5 microns is about 2.5 bacteria long


- Bugscope Team this is an odd-looking claw



- Bugscope Team you can see the setae near it. they likely help the beetle sense when the claw is in contact with something
- 10:26am
- Bugscope Team these are small beetles, and I am not sure what species they are; they are like cucumber beetles



- Bugscope Team now we can see lots of pollen, and its on one of those houseflies
- Teacher What is the most disgusting thing you have looked at?
- Bugscope Team oops in that case I should have type 'it's on'

- Teacher So the hairs are like the ones in our nose?
Bugscope Team yes. they act to block out larger particles.
Bugscope Team although the hairs in us are made from keratin, whereas these hairs are made of chitin (they are similar but different proteins).
Bugscope Team (sorry, chitin is not a protein, just realized my mistake.)

- Teacher This is soooo cool!
- Bugscope Team someone sent us a freshly dead pet fish. That was gross to find, but we didn't get to look at it in the microscope. It probably wouldnt have looked very good in this microscope anyway
- Bugscope Team someone else once sent us a giant millipede. It looked like a baby snake. It was thankfully dead, but surprised Scot when he opened it. It was cool to look at with the microscope because we saw there were mites all over it
- Teacher Have you looked at human parts?
Bugscope Team hair, lots of blood cells



- 10:32am
- Bugscope Team I've seen Scanning electron microscope images used in some dramas when they are doing CSI type things. Like if there was a certain pollen on clothing that was at the scene. Or looking at a close up of an insect or parasite that was found
- Teacher What type of microscope is used for CSI work?
Bugscope Team they use SEM's like this for some of what they do, like gunshot residue analysis; I believe they use light microscopes more than SEM's





- Bugscope Team the ant has tiny setae on its body called microsetae or microtrichae that are not sensory; they help form patterns and also likely help the ant keep a stable body temperature
- Bugscope Team here we see the beetle's mandible -- the thing that looks like a fork, kind of
- Bugscope Team ant jaws (mandibles) open from side to side, like a gate; unlike our mouths
- Teacher Oops we accidentally closed out. We still OK?
Bugscope Team looks like you are still good, still on!
- 10:39am


- Bugscope Team now we are looking into the beetle's mouth, as much as we can
- Bugscope Team some of the hairs (setae) we see are mechanosensory -- touch sensitive


- Bugscope Team when we went to this last preset I could hear the stage bind a bit inside the specimen chamber

- Bugscope Team that may affect our ability to move to other presets; we'll see


- Bugscope Team you can see mold spores on the central seta there, lined up


- 10:45am
- Bugscope Team that is a good demonstration of the size difference


- Teacher my name is maddy, how small is that compared to a cell?
Bugscope Team red blood cells are relatively small, usually 8 to 14 microns, or micrometers (same thing) in diameter; other cells may be two or three times larger
- Teacher cool, thanks!
- Bugscope Team bacteria are individual cells as well, and they are often -- the bacilli, that is -- about 2 microns long

- Bugscope Team bacteria come in three basic forms: rod-shaped (the bacilli), round (the cocci), and spiral (the spirochetes)
- Teacher what are the stems
Bugscope Team the things that look like stems to us are setae on the fly's body

- Bugscope Team you can also see microsetae, very small 'hairs' that are not sensory

- Bugscope Team if we lower the magnification we can see about where we are now

- 10:50am
- Teacher what do the setae do
Bugscope Team they help the insect to sense what is going on around it. They can't feel things through their exoskeleton like we can with our sensitive skin. The hairs help them with sense of touch, temperature, wind current directions, taste and smell
- Bugscope Team when we see scales on moths, butterflies, silverfish like this, and mosquitoes, they are considered setae as well, but modified into that fanlike shape

- Teacher hi this is Austin are the silverfish claws sharp enough to draw blood
Bugscope Team they are sharp but they are too small for us to feel, and I don't think they are long enough to get to blood. Maybe make a surface scratch on the skin


- Bugscope Team insects have a head, a thorax (which the legs are attached to), an abdomen, six legs, and two antennae
- Bugscope Team they also often have palps, like this beetle does. palps are accessory mouthparts that help insects taste and also manipulate their food
- Teacher Does this beatle have more than one eye
Bugscope Team they have 2 compound eyes, which are made of maybe a hundred or 2 ommatidia, which are the facets
- 10:55am

- Bugscope Team you can see the beetle's eyes on either side of its head; it does not have ocelli, which are the simple eyes we often see with flying insects in addition to their compound eyes


- Bugscope Team the final five or so segments of an insect's arm are called the tarsi
- Bugscope Team the last tarsus is where the claw is, often, like this one




- Teacher Hi this is ryan, do all flys have claws?
Bugscope Team In our experience, I believe all flies we've ever seen have six pairs of claws, one pair for each leg


- Teacher Is that all like dirt or debris?
Bugscope Team some of what we see are mold spores of various sizes, and some of it is dirt
- Bugscope Team both the small amphora like things and the spiny thing are mold spores
- Bugscope Team mold is always there, poised to grow on dead things and help them decay

- 11:00am








- Teacher hi im jarrett and i was wondering if you could see bacteria/viruses with the microscope and if you have ever cut open live things and looked at organs
Bugscope Team Hi Jarrett! We can definitely see bacteria. Viruses it is easier to see using the transmission electron microscope (TEM).


- Bugscope Team you can't see the organs very well with this microscope because everything has to be dry, so they tend to look shriveled. but we do have people that do that with light microscopes







- Bugscope Team viruses can be 50 nanometers in diameter; one 200th of a micrometer; we can see on that scale but usually it is tricky to see things that size among everything else
















- 11:05am





- Teacher Thank youn so much for everything guys! This was great! We have to log off because our schedule is a little wacky.
Bugscope Team thank you for joining us today. We hope you all had fun!
- Bugscope Team Thank You!
- Bugscope Team this was fun, today
- Bugscope Team https://bugscope.beckman.illinois.edu/members/2011-196
- Bugscope Team below is your member page
- Bugscope Team bye!