Connected on 2014-11-24 11:35:00 from Kings County, New York, United States
- 10:48am
- Bugscope Team hello!
- Bugscope Team we are setting up presets now
- Teacher Good Morning! We are currently setting up the remainder of the computers.

- Bugscope Team we are making the presets. so just bear with us a little more





- 10:53am






- 10:59am


- Teacher I will be leaving my room for a few minutes and will be back soon. Thanks

- Bugscope Team ok see you soon




- 11:04am
- Bugscope Team Daddio.





- 11:10am



- 11:15am





- 11:22am



- 11:28am


- Bugscope Team we are ready deby
- Bugscope Team ready to roll!
- Bugscope Team Deby you have control of the microscope.
- Bugscope Team you can click on any of the presets, on the lefthand screen, to get the 'scope to drive to those places
- Bugscope Team you can also click on the image, and the microscope will center on that position


- Bugscope Team plus, of course, you can change the mag, focus, etc.
- Teacher I am bringing in the students in 3 minutes
- Bugscope Team super cool
- 11:33am
- Bugscope Team please let us know when you have questions or problems
- Bugscope Team Cate, Daniel, and I are here to help.
- Bugscope Team this is a small cricket
- Bugscope Team you can see its compound eye behind and above the palp that is folded over its face
- 11:40am
- Teacher The students are currently at the computers. We are ready to begin
- Bugscope Team sweet!

- Bugscope Team please, everyone, feel free to ask us questrions, about anything!


- Bugscope Team now we're looking at the head, a bit closer
- Bugscope Team you can see that the live images from the microscope are in black and white -- in grey scale
- Student can u please put more magnification
- Teacher What are the holes on the head
Bugscope Team we can see an opening where the base of the antenna connects to the head
Bugscope Team and we can see that the compound eye is faceted




- Student What are those hairs?
Bugscope Team hairs in insects can be sensory: sometimes they sense hot/cold, sometimes they taste and smell with them, sometimes they are touch- and wind-sensitive


- Bugscope Team the hairs -- or setae, or bristles -- we see now are for proprioception, which is self-sensing; they let the cricket know when it is moving its head
- Student Thanks
- Student what are those big hairs
Bugscope Team a lot of the hairs, which we are supposed to call setae since they aren't on mammals, are for sense of touch


- 11:45am
- Student what are those lines
- Student what are those bumps on its skin?
Bugscope Team the small bumps to the right that we don't see right now are the ommatidia -- the individual eye facets


- Student where does the sound of a cricket come from and can you magnify that part
Bugscope Team it comes from the leg, which has a big thing kind of like a resonator on it
- Student can we please view a different insect
Bugscope Team here you go!


- Bugscope Team this is a true bug. true bugs are called hemipterans. and this one is a leafhopper
- Student About how many cells does this organism contain?
- Bugscope Team its compound eyes are streamlined into its pointy head
- Student where can we find these insects?
- Teacher What is currently on the right side of the slide?
Bugscope Team the insects are sitting on double-stick carbon tape. the tape has a lot of little bumpy features on it
- Student can we please view salt crystals
Bugscope Team your teacher can control the microscope now and can click on the preset for the salt crystals if she wishes to

- Student can we see its cells
Bugscope Team we can see evidence of cells, but we are looking at the outside of the body -- at the exoskeleton

- Student boxes
- Bugscope Team insects and comparable arthropods have an exoskeleton, like a shell, or like a coat of armor

- Student What are those
Bugscope Team those are salt from a Wendy's restaurant



- Student where can we find these insects?
Bugscope Team they are mostly local to Illinois and Indiana, near where we live
- 11:50am




- Student What is the bubble?
Bugscope Team likely it is a droplet of fluid, perhaps some hemolymph, which is what insect 'blood' is called

- Teacher how many fangs do spiders have
Bugscope Team they have 2 with pores at the tips to inject the venom
- Student do all spiders have fangs?
Bugscope Team I think so -- I am not sure about those coconut spiders. Almost all spiders for sure have two fangs, and they inject venom into their prey that dissolves the internal organs, which the spider can then suck up like a milkshake
- Student what are those strings and little hairs?
Bugscope Team these are setae that are likely sensory, helping the spider sense vibration
- Bugscope Team (this is Scot, using the name SJ on another computer)


- Student can the spiders see in color or only black and white
- Student what type of spider is this
Bugscope Team It is some kind of grass spider

- Student are there cells in fangs?
Bugscope Team originally there were cells; I am not sure how the exoskeleton and the chitin it is made of is considered at this point
- Student what are those debree on the hexogons
Bugscope Team some dust maybe that got on the eye
- Student is that bacteria on the head?
Bugscope Team sometimes we see bacteria but not for sure here yet

- 11:55am
- Student can i use this spider as a pet or its dangerous
Bugscope Team not dangerous to you. it's not a black widow or brown recluse


- Teacher What is each hextagon
Bugscope Team each hexagon is called an ommatidium, and it is an individual lens of the compound eye
- Student how do you get the insect on the slide if it's not flat
Bugscope Team it's not really a slide; it's an aluminum disc 1.75 inches in diameter

- Bugscope Team the samples are not flat; we're focusing on them using the scanning electron microscope, which lets us view things that are 3-dimensional
- Student can you change the magnification so we can see the whole fruitfly?
Bugscope Team yes, or your teacher can
- Student what is that that line structure
Bugscope Team those are the divisions of the facets, or ommaditia
- Student what is that stick coming out of the hexogon?
Bugscope Team that is a seta --- a sensory seta that helps the fly sense wind and touch

- Student what is that

- Student what are those two antennas?
- Bugscope Team these are the cercopods -- the pincers of an earwig
- Bugscope Team this is a male earwig
- Student do the pincers have venom?
Bugscope Team no they just pinch
- Student do you have a crab to show us
Bugscope Team no crabs today -- if we had a rolypoly, that would represent crustaceans
- Teacher Does that contain any poisionus liquid in it?
Bugscope Team no it is just a pincer, for protection
- 12:00pm

- Student what do they do?
Bugscope Team looks like it would be a good wire stripper, but it is used to pinch things that try to bother the earwig

- Bugscope Team male earwigs have strongly curved cercopods, and female earwigs have cercopods that are much straighter
- Student what are those black structures
Bugscope Team to the right? those are bubbles in the carbon tape the insects are stuck to
- Student what are those dots in the background
Bugscope Team that's part of the carbon tape that the insects are stuck to
- Student what are those bubbles around it
Bugscope Team the carbon tape has little bubbles or craters in its surface

- Bugscope Team this is a cute little tiny beetle that Daniel found in his house.




- Teacher Of all the insects here which is thew most dangerous?
Bugscope Team it is funny -- I would say the mosquitoes are most dangerous, but I accidentally put all male mosquitoes on today's stub
- Student Right now can the insect move
Bugscope Team no it is dead and dry

- Student what are those circles on its face
Bugscope Team the tiny circles were the eye facets -- the ommatidia

- Bugscope Team we can tell that this is a male mosquito because it has ornate antennae

- 12:06pm
- Bugscope Team the male needs to have those fancy antennae with vibration-sensory organs in them so it can tune into the noise of the female wings
- Student dangerous
- Student what are those rigid flakes
Bugscope Team those are scales, which butterflies, moths, and silverfish have as well
- Student do you have a bee that we can see
Bugscope Team there is a yellowjacket wasp
- Student sckodsvjofdjvifdj\
- Teacher whats are the wires coming out of the big fuzzy stick
Bugscope Team those are parts of the antennae

- Student What makes the mosquito if all it does is make you itch?
Bugscope Team the saliva makes you itch; it gets a blood meal so it can lay its eggs successfully
- Student is there a difference between a male and female mosiquito
Bugscope Team the males do not drink blood; sometimes they drink nectar, from flowers

- Student do mosquitoes eat anything besides blood?
Bugscope Team there are some species of mosquitoes in which the females and males both drink nectar, but not in the U.S.
- Student what are those bubbles on the face
Bugscope Team those are the spider's eyes, some of them
- Student what are those BUBBLES
Bugscope Team those are the eyes :)
- Student can we see the yellowjacket wasp?
Bugscope Team yes as soon as your teacher drives the 'scope to that position
- Student :0
- Student what make the mosquitos so dangerous?
Bugscope Team they pass diseases on to people, like malaria and yellow fever and West Nile virus
- Student how many\
Bugscope Team we see 7 eyes; usually there are 8
- Bugscope Team the head and the thorax are one piece in a spider, called the cephalothorax
- Student what are those strings coming out of the face
Bugscope Team those are setae, or hairs. they help with sense of touch, or maybe vibration in this case
- 12:11pm

- Student DW22FWD2FDWF2DF2DWF2D
- Teacher the bees are not there
Bugscope Team sorry I called it a wasp in the preset
- Bugscope Team its mandibles -- its jaws -- open left and right, like a gate
- Student can you magnify it more

- Student how does the spider see if its eyes are covered?
Bugscope Team it cannot see if its eyes are covered, but it is very good as sensing vibration


- Student sorry
- Student whats the objects that are on top of eachother
Bugscope Team those are the mandibles -- its jaws
Bugscope Team you can see that they are kind of like forks, or sporks
- Bugscope Team we see something below the mandibles that looks like a mouth opening

- Student what is that random dot on the jaw
Bugscope Team it could be pollen or just some juju

- Bugscope Team the spider has lots of plumose setae like that
- Student what is juju
- Student whats the objects that are on top of eachother SJthose are the mandibles -- its jaws SJyou can see that they are kind of like forks, or sporks MDY1sorry MDYhow does the spider see if its eyes are covered? SJit cannot see if its eyes are covered, but it is very good as sensing vibration MDY3can you magnify it more SJits mandibles -- its jaws -- open left and right, like a gate DEBYthe bees are not there SJsorry I called it a wasp in the preset MDY1DW22FWD2FDWF2DF2DWF2D MDY4what are those strings coming out of the face CATEthose are setae, or hairs. they help with sense of touch, or maybe vibration in this case SJthe head and the thorax are one piece in a spider, called the cephalothorax MDY2how many\ SJwe see 7 eyes; usually there are 8 MDY1what make the mosquitos so dangerous? SJthey pass diseases on to people, like malaria and yellow fever and West Nile virus MDY:0 MDY2what are those BUBBLES CATEthose are the eyes :) MDY3can we see the yellowjacket wasp? SJyes as soon as your teacher drives the 'scope to tha
- Teacher is that a mouth
Bugscope Team yes it is!
- Bugscope Team this is a tiny ant called a plier ant that has those super creepy looking jaws
- Bugscope Team the compound eyes are on the bottom of the head


- Student sorry mybad
- Bugscope Team plier ants specialize in feeding on collembola, which is what springtails are called\


- 12:16pm


- Bugscope Team the jaws are awesome

- Bugscope Team juju is what we call things we don't recognize, often just some kind of debris

- Bugscope Team this is the opening to another universe

- Student what are those oval structures
Bugscope Team those are pollen grains


- Student What are those hairs/threads on every insect
Bugscope Team they're called setae, and they are sensory; they are necessary because insects do not have skin -- instead they have a shell that cannot feel







- Student what are those lines?
Bugscope Team those are cracks in the tape way up close
- Teacher what are those beans around it?
Bugscope Team lily pollen

- Student do you have a bee that we can view?
Bugscope Team we just looked at a wasp -- a yellowkacket; that is as close as we get today
- Bugscope Team the exoskeleton is made of chitin, which is similar to the keratin in your fingernails

- Teacher is there any questions that other classes usally ask that you think we woud be interested in knowing
Bugscope Team here we will show you the inside of the specimen chamber in a sec
- 12:21pm
- Bugscope Team sometimes students ask what the samples are coated with, and is the microscope easy to use, and why are the samples in gray scale instead of color
- Bugscope Team the chat and images from today can be accessed anytime in the future from the member page. the names are made anonymous
- Student What is this
Bugscope Team this is the inside of the vacuum/specimen chamber
- Bugscope Team the cone-shaped thing at the top is where the electrons come from
- Bugscope Team the platter in the middle is the sample we are looking at
- Student around how big is the whole microscope?
Bugscope Team the main part is about the size of a fridge

- Teacher What are the answers?
Bugscope Team the samples are coated with about 20 nanometers of gold-palladium, an alloy
Bugscope Team it is thicker than we would coat normal samples with

- Bugscope Team the microscope is easy to use, and fun, and we rarely use it to look at insects unless we are running Bugscope
- Student what are those circular structres
Bugscope Team they look like dried drops of some sort of liquid
- Teacher Can you send us a picture of the microscope and lab you are working at>?
- Bugscope Team there is no color because we are using electrons, which are super small -- much smaller than the wavelengths of visible light -- to look at the samples

- Student can we view an image of the actual microscope

- 12:27pm
- Teacher What do you usually look at
Bugscope Team we train people to look at bacteria, cells (sometimes zombie cells), lots of devices they have made from PDMS, self-healing polymer capsules, filters, all kinds of stuff
- Student what are zombie cells?
- Student isnt this microscope supposed to be complicated to operate?
Bugscope Team it is helpful if you know the theory behind what you are doing so you can get the best images
- Teacher Can we see a zombie cell
Bugscope Team they look like normal cells but I am sorry we do not have any today
- Teacher We are learning about animal and plant cells. Do you have any individual cells for us to see?
- Student is the stinger poisionus?
Bugscope Team it has a venom in it that would hurt but not cause lasting problems


- Bugscope Team the cells have to go through some preparation before looking at them under this microscope because of the vacuum
- Student can we see the retina of an eye?
Bugscope Team insects do not have those kinds of eyes; we could see them if we had them; I have done it before, with rabbits
- Student what are brochomes
Bugscope Team they are nanoparticles that leafhoppers produce; they are 250 to 400 nm in diameter
- Student what are zombie cells?
Bugscope Team they are replicas of individual cells made out of nanocrystalline silica
- 12:32pm
- Student what are those dots all around it?
Bugscope Team this shows how small these are; they are hard to get in focus at this long working distance
- Bugscope Team sometimes we see bacteria
Bugscope Team bacteria are individual cells, and there are likely some here but sometimes they are hard to find


- Bugscope Team that was a spiracle, through which insects breathe
- Bugscope Team and here we are looking at a few wing scales, which produce structural colors as well as normal pigmented colors

- Teacher What is the highest magnification that you can magnify?
Bugscope Team we can go to over a million times, but for research-quality images it is rare to hit 200,000x.
- Student what is the hole?
Bugscope Team this is a spiracle. it's a breathing port that is kind of like a nostril
- Bugscope Team it is a spiracle, through which insects breathe; it connects to tracheae, which are little ducts that go to organs inside of the body
- Teacher Did you ever look at a brain
Bugscope Team we haven't in the past, but some people do

- Bugscope Team insects can open and close their spiracles to let air in or out

- Student what is a fruit fly spiracle?
Bugscope Team all insects have spiracles, but this one is on the thorax (like the chest) of a fruitfly
- 12:37pm

- Student one tree hilllllll
Bugscope Team haha Yeah!



- Student are fruitflies only atrracted to fruit
Bugscope Team they are said to eat the mold that gets on fruit; I'm not sure what is and is not correct. some people have told us that what we call fruitflies are vinegar flies\


- Bugscope Team we should be able to see the haltere

- Bugscope Team down lower on the body






- Bugscope Team the round thing is the haltere

- Bugscope Team you can see loose scales on the body as well
- Student thanx scott
Bugscope Team Yay! Thank You!

- Student what is haltere?
Bugscope Team they beat opposite the wing to help balance the fly as it flies
- Student i am getting a fruitfly as a pet next week any advice?
Bugscope Team you can feed them medium and they will breed if you get more than one and they are not all boys or girls
Bugscope Team it will be hard to put a leash on it if you want to keep it from flying away

- Student is that living things on the organism
Bugscope Team the scales come from other insects
- Teacher Thank you so much. We will be going to our next class now. We greatly appreciate the interactive presentations
Bugscope Team Thank You!
- Student thank you
- 12:43pm
- Student thank you very much!
- Bugscope Team thanks
- Bugscope Team https://bugscope.beckman.illinois.edu/members/2014-075
- Bugscope Team Thank you, Everyone!
- Student thank you so much i had an awsome time!!
- Bugscope Team Bye!
- Student bye
- Bugscope Team Good Bye, Everyone!