Discovery Science Center
Session 2008-037

Application

School

Class

Project

Miscellaneous

Transcript

Connected on 2008-04-30 17:00:00 from , CA, US

• 4:00 pm
• Bugscope Teamsession enabled, rxl on, YO CATE, starting vac
• 4:13 pm

• Bugscope TeamYeah gotta work...

• 4:20 pm

• 4:30 pm

• Bugscope Teampretty

• Bugscope Teamyou talkin' 'bout the salt?
• Bugscope Teamyes
• Bugscope Teamd'oh no extremities
• Bugscope Teamheh

• 4:36 pm

• Bugscope Teamthis mighta been good for 3d

• 4:41 pm

• Bugscope Teamok
• 4:48 pm

• 4:54 pm

• Bugscope Teamwait

• 5:01 pm
• Bugscope Teamhi deba, welcome to bugscope!

• Bugscope TeamHi Deba!
• Bugscope Teamone more preset: fruitfly

• Bugscope Teampresets are done
• Bugscope Teamsession unlocked
• Bugscope TeamDeba we are ready to give you control.
• Bugscope Teamdeba, you should see controls on your right, magnify, navigation, etc
• Bugscope TeamAs soon as you wish.
• Bugscope Teamif you have any questions let us know
• Bugscope TeamYou can also choose from among the presets to the right of this chatbox to get you started.
• Bugscope Teamhi mary, welcome to bugscope!
• Bugscope Teamjodie, laura, welcome!
• 5:06 pm
• Bugscope TeamWelcome to Bugscope!
• Bugscope TeamLaura would you like to drive?
• Teacherwhat bug are we looking at?
• Bugscope Teamthis is a compound eye of a fruit fly
• Bugscope TeamThis is a fruit fly. As alex said.
• Bugscope TeamWhat we are looking at is the individual facets, called ommatidia.
• Studenthi scott
• Bugscope Teamthe spikes are setae which are insect hairs
• Studentyes I will try
• Bugscope TeamThey have setae sticking out from between them.
• Bugscope Teamokay Laura you have control.
• Studentwhat do i do
• Bugscope Teameach hexagon is an individual fact of the eye, called an ommatidium, and has a lens in it
• Bugscope TeamYou can try things out and see how they work.
• Bugscope Teamfacet, not a fact... silly me :)
• Bugscope Team'
• Bugscope Teamapostrophe

• Teacherwhat are those sticks at the triple point of the lenses?
  Bugscope Teamthose are setae, which are hair-like structures
  Bugscope Teamthose are called setae (see-tee), they help the insect to sense its environment
• Bugscope Teamthis is the vestiture -- the mid part of the head.

• TeacherHi, Scott, Alex and Cate, This is Sue Neuen
• Bugscope Teamhi sue, welcome to bugscope!
• Bugscope Teamthe sticks are setae (see-tee) that help the fruit fly gauge wind speed.
• Bugscope TeamYay! Hi Sue!

• Bugscope Teamthis is the base of the antenna of the fruit fly.

• Bugscope Teamgood driving!
• 5:11 pm
• TeacherHi, Scott, Alex and Cate,
  Bugscope Teamhi Sue!

• Bugscope Teamnow back to the preset, and back on the road

• Bugscope Teamthe setae we are imaging now are mostly mechanosensory

• Bugscope Teamthe tiny setae are microsetae and not likely sensory
• Bugscope Teaminsects are often covered with many setae (hairs), those setae stick through the exoskeleton and are connected to nerves underneath
• Studentwhat is the hole in the bottom right corner?
• Bugscope Teamthat is where one of the larger spines has broken off
• Studentok, I'm going to let someone else drive
• Bugscope Teamalthough keep an eye out for other holes in bugs, some are used to breath!
• TeacherIn the left corner the measurement says 23 um?
  Bugscope Teamyep, that's an automatic scale bar, 1 um = one micron = one millionth of a meter

• Bugscope Teamthe mechanosensory setae function much like cat or rat whiskers
• Bugscope Teamyes 23 microns or micrometers
• Bugscope Teamabout 11 bacteria long
• Bugscope Teamif we were thinking about bacilli
• Bugscope Teamwho would like to drive now?
• Bugscope Teamwho would like to drive?
• TeacherI will
• Bugscope Teamjodie, want to drive the scope? it's fun.
• StudentI was woking with 5th grade students today and they want to know if you can see an atom with an electron microscope
• Bugscope Teamok, eddie, you've got control
• StudentEddie got there first!
• Bugscope TeamEddie you got it Dude

• 5:16 pm
• Bugscope Teamyou can see an atom with a transmission electron microscope (TEM), but there are not many TEM's that good.

• Bugscope Teamnice imaging!

• Bugscope Teamthe latest newest TEMs can do it

• Studentthanks! I'll look up the TEM and tell them about it. They will be really excited!

• Bugscope Teamthose setae on the eye are thought to help the fly sense air movement, and that's how it's able to move so quickly away from your hand when you swing at it
• Bugscope Teamand that's why a fly swatter works better, because the swatter has holes in it, so it moves less air as it is approaching the fly

• Studentmakes sense now!

• Bugscope Teamit used to be that TEMs had spherical and chromatic aberrations that prevented one from being able to resolve atoms. First they figured out how to correct those aberrations using software; only recently did they figure out how to do it with the actual optics.

• Studentwhat is that?

• Bugscope Teamthis is the antenna,
• Bugscope Teamboth parts -- there is a sort of pad part and a part that looks like a branch

• Studentso the TEM is kind of like looking at images from outerspace that need to be fixed by software?

• Bugscope Teamthe mouth, here, is dried and not like it looks in life
• Bugscope Teamnice driving eddie, you are finding some cool stuff

• Bugscope Teamwell lower mag images work fine in TEM, but atoms were pushing the limits

• 5:21 pm
• TeacherIs that a hole in the wing?
  Bugscope Teamthat is probably where i poked a hole in it when I was picking it up
• StudentHow big is the whole fly we are looking at?
• Bugscope Teamas you drive around the system automatically saves images and stores them onto your member page for later study. all chat is saved on your member page as well
• StudentThese hairs on the legs, are they tactile or do they sense taste?
• Bugscope TeamTEM is how you see cell organelles such as mitochondria and Golgi, etc.
• Bugscope Teamyour member page is: http://bugscope.beckman.uiuc.edu/members/2008-037

• Bugscope Teambutterflies can taste things through their feet setae
• Bugscope TeamCate is more careful than the rest of us. If I had mounted it we would be lucky to have its head.
• TeacherWhat is the fly resting on?
• Bugscope Teamhaha with my luck, I wouldnt even realize it was missing its head

• StudentThe hairs on the legs - are they tactile or do they sense taste?

• Bugscope Teamsilver paint on top of carbon doublestick tape

• Bugscope Teamprobably mostly tactile but like a Monarch there could be chemosensory setae as well.

• Bugscope Teamclaw!

• Studentany suggestions on the best types of bugs to send in for observations?

• Bugscope Teamsometimes we can see a tiny pore in the tip of a chemosensory seta.
• StudentWhy are the images in black, white and gray with no other colors?
  Bugscope Teamthe microscope uses electrons to gather the image, not light. the electrons are beamed at the bug, and then bounce off (along with gold-palladium) and are collected by the secondary electron detector. that detector can sense different intensities and that's how you get different shades of grey
• Bugscope Teamsmall, for a start
• TeacherPlease pass the driving to Joe
• Bugscope Teamsmaller ones are always good. Specialized insects are interesting, unlike roaches which are streamlined from years of evolution

• Bugscope Teamgo for it joe

• Bugscope Teamearwigs, fruitflies, mosquitos, ticks (which I realize are not insects), flies...
• 5:27 pm
• Bugscope Teamearwigs very often have mites on them

• Bugscope Teamscott, can correct me on that color answer, he's the expert in electron microscopy

• Bugscope Teamthe wavelengths of visible light are 400 to 700 nm, and the diameters of electrons are much smaller than that

• Bugscope Teamso we are using something much smaller than light to get our images

• TeacherWhat is the procedure to send in bugs?
  Bugscope Teamall that info is on our website, we've tried to make it very simple to understand and get to: http://bugscope.beckman.uiuc.edu/
  Bugscope Teamhere's a better link, with more detailed instruction: http://bugscope.beckman.uiuc.edu/help#specimen

• Bugscope Teamdry, preferably dead, wrapped in Kleenex

• Bugscope Teamand then in a noncrushable container
• Teacherwhat are the structures that look like tongues between the compound eyes
• TeacherHow many bugs can a class send in?
  Bugscope Teamas many as you want. if you give us extras that's great and it can go in our personal stock for future sessions :)
  Bugscope Team116
• Bugscope Teamthe best ones come in baby Tupperware in Kleenex and are already dead and dry
• StudentI'm seeing two pads in the eye area above the mouth. What are they?
  Bugscope Teamthose are a set of antennae
• Bugscope Teamyeah I was just kidding
• Studentdoes anyone know how evolved the fruit fly is in comparison to other insects?
• TeacherHow bout 41?
• Bugscope Teambe sure to try another preset -- there are many today
• Teacher;)
• Bugscope Teamthe pads are the antennae

• Bugscope TeamEddie that would be great.
• 5:32 pm
• Bugscope Teamthe mouth does not look good here at all.
• Teacherwhat do the antennae sense?
  Bugscope Teamthey can sense pheromones and chemical smells in the air
• TeacherIs the microscope scanning top to bottom or side to side?
  Bugscope Teamtop to bottom it is kind of hard to see through the browser, but if you were in front of the microscope computer, you would see it
• StudentI just came in and did not find out which fly this is. It looks like the mouthparts are sponge like. Does it feed by soaking up material?
  Bugscope Teamif this fruit fly were critical point dried, it would look better. Yes it has sponging mouth parts. It kind of spits up some juices to dissolve what it will eat and then it sponges them back up
• Bugscope Teamso we could have told you that if we get insects in 100% ethanol we can critical point dry them, and we can get them to look even better.
• TeacherHow do we see other preset insects?
  Bugscope Teamwell, when we setup for a session, we decide what presets to make. then when the session starts, the teacher can click on any one of those presets. it's just a way to create bookmark like places, in case one gets lost during driving the scope
• Bugscope Teamso if you collected fresh insects and put them right into EtOH that would be totally cool.
• Bugscope TeamJoe can click on one of the presets to the right of the chat here
• Bugscope Teamthe presets scroll...

• Bugscope Teambut perhaps for obvious reasons only one person can drive at a time

• Bugscope Teamthis is a true bug (Hemiptera)

• Bugscope Teamsort of truncated -- the abdomen is gone
• Bugscope Teamheh

• Bugscope Teamthere is a hole in it where a pin was

• 5:37 pm
• Bugscope Teamthat's a serious antenna, huh?
• Bugscope Teamif you do not like a preset try another -- we made a whole boatload of them

• Bugscope Teamthe samples are on a 1.75 inch disc

• Bugscope Teamthe sample stage of the microscope can move only 50 mm, so that is about right for the aluminum discs, which we have machined for this

• Bugscope Teamthis microscope in particular will allow one to image nonconductive and uncoated samples, but for bugscope and most other applications we coat our samples
• Bugscope Teamthe pad on down the tarsus here has tenent setae on it that allow the insect to climb vertical surfaces
• Bugscope Teamthe tenent setae are on a pad called a pulvillus

• Bugscope Teamthis is a rolypoly
• Bugscope Teampillbug, woodlouse, sowbug
• 5:42 pm

• Bugscope Teamthese are isopods, and they are also crustaceans -- they are not insects

• Bugscope Teamalso known as a doodlebug
• Bugscope Teamthey have I think seven pairs of legs

• Bugscope Teamor a potato bug, or according to a former vice-pres, potatoe bug
• Bugscope Teamand the legs are all the same -- so they are called isopods

• Bugscope Teamrolypolys thrive in damp areas, actually they require it, because they have special breathing organs which are a lot like gills
• Bugscope Teamyou can see plant material on this little dude as well
• Studentcan we see their breathing organs?
• Bugscope Teamlet us know if someone else would like to drive, if Joe is tired

• Teacherwhere are the eyes
• Bugscope Teamwe can barely see the eyes, to the left of the head here
• Bugscope Teamha
• StudentAre those teeth in the mouth?
  Bugscope Teamno but it has 4 pairs of jaws, that might be someof them
• Bugscope Teamthe eyes are more easily seen from its back
• StudentPass to Debby
• Bugscope Teamokay, debby, you've got control
• Studentok, why 4 pair of jaws?
• 5:47 pm
• Bugscope Teamthey have a lot of chewing to do?
• TeacherWith 4 jaws, what does this eat?
  Bugscope Teamthey commonly feed on vegetation, under logs or other damp areas
• Bugscope Teaminsects/arthrpods often have very novel mouthparts, not at all like ours
• Bugscope Teamarthropods sp.
• Teacherdebby has no control
• StudentScott - What does sp mean?
• Bugscope Teamwhat is also interesting to me is that we are seeing this creature at a fixed moment in time, and in life they are often very dynamic
• Bugscope Teamaquatic rolypolys can get up to 20cm big
• Bugscope Teamokay, trying to fix

• Bugscope Teamsomeone did something, is it working debby?
• Teacherno
• StudentI might be her computer pass
• Studentpass it to Laura
• Bugscope Teamit's the same with TEM -- we are seeing cells at a fixed moment in time and they are so busy -- there is so much going on
• Bugscope Teamokay, hold on, i'm going to switch, and back again
• Bugscope Teamoops who wants to drive?
• Studentdebby
• Bugscope Teamokay, debby, i've given you control again, do you see the controls on the upper right of your browser?
• Bugscope Teamthanks Alex had it straight and I goofed it up
• Bugscope Teamif not, try hitting refresh F5
• Bugscope Teamno prob scott
• Teacheryes, nice to know i have control of something
• Studentdebby has it dno
• Studentdebbie has it now
• Bugscope Teamcoolness
• Bugscope Teamdebbie, take us for a spin!
• Bugscope TeamDebby you can scroll through the presets and find something else to image as well, if you want
• 5:52 pm

• Bugscope Teamthis is right in the middle of the Monarch wing, and it is very bright in part because the scales do not ground very well.

• TeacherWhat part of the ant are we zoomed in on?
• Bugscope Teamyou can adjust the brightness in the adjust control
• Bugscope Teamwhen we want to look at scales we look near an edge that we have stuck down well with silver paint

• TeacherOoops, I guess we moved to a monarch wing...
• Teacherwhy silver paint
• Bugscope Teamwe moved beyond the ant, Randy, to the Monarch wing

• StudentI see Fred is a guest can anyone log in to see this?
  Bugscope Teamyes, we allow anyone to log in, sometimes teachers with upcoming session want to see how it works, sometimes people are just curious. we can block anyone from loging in though, in case someone gets feisty..
• Bugscope Teamsilver paint is conductive and cheaper than, for example, gold or platinum paint

• Bugscope Teamyes anyone can log in to see this
• Bugscope Teamanyone can log in as a guest, and we can confer control to them as well
• Bugscope Teamwe've seen fred many times before, he is well behaved...
• Bugscope Teamthis is pretty cool

• Bugscope Teamnice control of the 'scope
• Bugscope Teamso pretty
• Bugscope Teampollen
• TeacherSo when students send in samples do you set them up as presets?
• Bugscope Teamyeppers

• Bugscope Teamyes we try to pay attention to what they ask to see
• Bugscope Teamas long as they aren't total mush or something...

• Bugscope Teamsometimes we will get a shopping list of things people would like to see
• Teacherdo you also identify all samples?
• 5:57 pm

• Bugscope Teamwe pick the ones that preserved the best and don't charge up with electrons

• Bugscope Teamwe try our best to ID the samples
• Bugscope Teamwe have anohter bugscope member, annie ray, she is a PHD entomology student, working on a thesis specialized on beetles. she is an expert on a lot of the difficult questions about insects
• Teacheris the circle in the center the pollen grain
• Teacherexplain charge up w/ electrons
• TeacherIs this the pollen grain?
• Bugscope Teamit looks like it
• Bugscope Teamthe list of bugscope staff is here: http://bugscope.beckman.uiuc.edu/who_are_we
• Bugscope Teamand we spend time learning the characteristics of some of the common insects/arthropods

• StudentIf I understand correctly, we can use this from our classrooms? Are you staffed during the mornings?
  Bugscope Teamwe try to do session only during our working hours, 8-5 central, but we special occasions, where a class from a foreign country will want to use it, then we are going to have to be here at night. we can do that.
  Bugscope Teamthere is a computer compatibility test that we ask you run, from the computer(s) you plan to use for bugscope
  Bugscope Teamif you computers pass the test, then all is good! even if it fails, we can still work with you. since i've been on bugscope, we've never turned away a class that wanted to do it
• Bugscope Teamthis may also be a mold spore -- they are similar in size and appearance
• Bugscope Teamyes we've done sessions at all times of the day

• TeacherIs there a way to control the brightness on our individual screens?
  Bugscope Teamwell, not really, we can only allow control of the scope image from one person at a time, so the person who has control now would have to change the brightness
  Bugscope Teamrandy, that is because when someone is controlling the scope, they are literally control the ESEM itself, and we try to make it as true to life as possible, so the kids can see what it's really like
• Bugscope Teamwe work with you to get the day/time you want to do the session at

• Bugscope TeamEddie charging is when the electrons that impinge on the sample do not run across it and go to ground

• Bugscope Teamthese are mostly chemosensory setae
• Bugscope Teamlike taste buds here at the tip of the piercing proboscis
• 6:03 pm
• Teachertissues vs. organs? which would be at the organ level

• StudentWhat is the strangest thing you have looked at under the electron microscope?

• Bugscope TeamDebby I missed the first part of that about tissues/organs

• Bugscope Teamskin is an organ, i believe...
• Bugscope Teamone of the coolest things we have seen is mites
• Bugscope Teamyeah, mites are cool, they are bugs on bugs!
• Bugscope Teamonce we set up a mite war in the 'scope
• Teacherwould the setae or any other structures be tissues or organs?
• StudentIf we see an image that we would like to download and use later, can it be saved. I tried but it did not work.
  Bugscope Teamall the images are saved to your member page: http://bugscope.beckman.uiuc.edu/members/2008-037, check that out. it also saves chat
• Bugscope Teamwe had prey and predator mites and set the predator mites loose on an island of prey mites on a plant
• Bugscope Teamthe setae are part of the nervous system
• Bugscope Teamwhenever the image is still for a second or two, an image is saved to your member page, and chat is saved along side those images
• TeacherWhat is coming out of the holes?
• Bugscope Teamthe reason insects and similar arthropods have setae is because they have exoskeletons
• Bugscope Teamon the member page, just go to the transcript and it will all be there
• Teacherpass the driving to maureen
• Bugscope Teamso they have, essentially, armor
• Bugscope Teamoh yeah, good point cate, thanks, once on the member page, click on "full transcript" to see it all
• Studentwere the predator mites move around or were they all dead?
• Bugscope Teammaureen, you've got control now
• Bugscope Teamlike if we had armor we would not be able to feel our environment
• 6:08 pm

• Bugscope TeamI used a dissecting 'scope to watch the predators attack the prey, and then I clipped the leaves they were on and froze them using plates of aluminum that were sitting in liquid nitrogen

• Bugscope Teamafter that I put the little stubs they were on in the 'scope, in wet mode, and took photos
• Studentso you froze the leaf and mites?

• Studentso you do not need to coat them with gold?
• Bugscope Teamthis was using the microscope as an environmental scanning electron microscope (ESEM)
• Bugscope Teamso I did not need to coat them
• Bugscope TeamI put them on the Peltier stage to keep them frozen

• Bugscope Team4 C plus 6.1 Torr water vapor gave us 100% RH in the chamber, at least at the sample

• Bugscope Teamthe prey mites were a species called urticae, which you know means 'itching'
• Studentwhat are we looking at now?

• Bugscope Teami'm not sure where we are exactly

• Bugscope Teamso I had put the prey mites on an island (a Tupperware dish) in a dishwashing tub
• 6:13 pm
• Bugscope Teamtake the mag down so we can see where we are?

• Bugscope Teamthe island I had to secure with tape so it would not float to an edge

• Bugscope Teamfruitfly
• Bugscope Teambut the mites walked across the doublestick tape no problem
• Bugscope Teamfly's usually have very complex eyes, with lots of ommatidia

• Bugscope Teamthe prey mites made the predator mites hungry
• Bugscope Teamthey make people itch

• Bugscope Teamso no one wanted to come into the ESEM room for awhile

• Studentdo the predator mites actually eat the prey mites?
• Bugscope Teamthey grab them and bite them, probably actually suck the juice out of them

• Bugscope Teamsounds like a good horror movie...
• Studentsounds like a horror film...
• Bugscope Teamsometimes we find ladybugs that have been chewed on by dustmites after they died

• Bugscope Teamthey cut right into the cuticle -- the chitin

• Studenthave you looked at head lice?
  Bugscope Teamyep, scott has before
• Bugscope Teamdustmites are actually softbodied and unless we could fix them while they were alive they would shrivel up

• Bugscope Teamyes they have little cliinging arms to attach to hairs
• Bugscope Teamyes or dermestid beetles
• 6:18 pm

• Bugscope Teamwow this looks like pollen

• TeacherThe bee was on my desk
• Bugscope Teamdermestids I think are at least a cm long

• Bugscope Teamthey can devastate hides in a museum
• Bugscope Teami just found on wikipedia, dermestids can be 1-12 cm long
• Bugscope Teamthey can be used to strip a skeleton to bone
• Bugscope Teamwait wait, 1 -12 mm

• Bugscope Teamso they are smaller than we thought, or wiki is wrong. wiki has been wrong before

• Bugscope Teamyeah I would be scared
• TeacherI don't think it was a dermestid that big.

• Bugscope Teamwe are looking at tiny hairs called microsetae
• Studenthow did you get the job to use the electron microscope?
• TeacherI would of seen that
• Bugscope Teambut 1 to 12 mm is not so bad

• Bugscope TeamI walked in one day and started working as Scott says. eventually I got trained on the electron microscope and here i am
• Bugscope TeamI needed something to do when I was finishing my double major and asked if I could work in someone's lab.

• Bugscope Teamyeah Cate just appeared here

• Studentare you college students or graduate students?

• Bugscope Teamlike she just popped out of the elevator here in the basement and stayed
• 6:23 pm
• Bugscope Teamall of us on now are full time staff at the beckman institute
• Bugscope Teami graduated with a degree in physics
• Bugscope Teamannie ray, who is often on, is a PHD entomology student
• Studentthanks for all the information, have to go now :)
• Bugscope Teamawww...
• TeacherThank you for your time.
• Bugscope Teamokay laura, hope to see you on a bugscope session sometime in the future!
• Bugscope TeamThank You!
• StudentThanks for the great demo!
• StudentWhat fun we had. Thanks for your time to let us see these insects up close. Makes you want to be sure and call the exterminator.
• Bugscope Teambye bye everyone, thanks for being such cool teachers!
• TeacherThank you for the up close and personal bug demo!
• Bugscope Teamyeah when you get into the Outer World and are teaching go ahead and apply from the bugscope web page
• Teacherright place, right time. thank you
• Bugscope Teamthanks for all the great questions~
• Bugscope Teamhttp://bugscope.beckman.uiuc.edu/apply
• TeacherScott and team, Thank you for your time today. You are great!!!!
• StudentThank you Scott Alex Cate Scot for taking the extra time to help us learn how to use this cool tool. Be seing you. Joe
• Bugscope Teamand here's your member page again: http://bugscope.beckman.uiuc.edu/members/2008-037
• Bugscope Teamthanks everyone
• Bugscope Teamwhen you apply for your own sessions, you'll have your own member page
• Bugscope TeamWe are happy to do this, of course, and this was a particularly fun session
• TeacherUntil next time,
• Bugscope Teamthanks sue!
• Bugscope TeamSee You Sue!
• Bugscope TeamGood bye everyone!
• 6:29 pm
• Bugscope Teamrxl stopped, session disabled
• Bugscope Teamsession locked
• Bugscope Teamokay, randy, maureen, joe, and laura, we gotta book, so we'll be loging you off in a sec
• Bugscope Teamnice session everyone, good bye