General Stewart
Session 2008-064

Application

School

Class

Project

Miscellaneous

Transcript

Connected on 2008-09-12 11:00:00 from Lethbridge, AB, CA

• 10:30 am
• Bugscope Teamwe are setting up the microscope
• Bugscope Teamcollecting the presets for today
• 10:35 am
• Bugscope Teamcool setae pores

• Bugscope Teamyeah!

• 10:43 am

• 10:49 am

• 10:56 am

• Teacherok
• Bugscope TeamHi Mr B!
• Teacherso we will start in about 15 minutes
• Bugscope TeamWelcome to Bugscope!
• 11:01 am
• Teacherthank you
• Bugscope TeamYou have control if you would like to try things out before the kids show up.
• Bugscope Teamyou can choose from among the presets on the right, and you can also strike out on your own using the controls on the upper right

• Bugscope Teamyou can change the mag, drive by clicking on the screen after activating click to center, drive bym clicking to drive...
• Bugscope Teamif you click to drive it's good to remember to click to stop]
• Teacherok sounds great
• Teacherwhat bug are we looking at
• Bugscope Teamthis is a silverfish, part of the tarsus -- like the forearm

• Teacherwow
• Bugscope TeamI changed the mag for you -- but we want you to control the 'scope, not us
• 11:06 am
• Bugscope Teamif you have kids log in we can confer control to them as well, one at a time
• Bugscope TeamMr B will the kids be able to log on?
• Teacherno i will be asking the questions for them

• Bugscope Teamok
• Bugscope TeamOkay will you be driving too?
• Teacheri will
• Bugscope TeamCool!]
• Bugscope TeamLet us know if you have any questions about driving, or anything...
• Teacherok
• Teacheri am just waiting for the students

• 11:11 am

• Bugscope Teamnice!
• Bugscope Teamthese are predatory flies, when they're grown up, and predatory larvae at this stage as well
• Bugscope Teamstrictly they are not flies but more closely related to antlions
• Bugscope Teamthey have serious snapping jaws and disguise themselves with sand pebbles, sometimes, while they lie in wait for their prey
• 11:18 am
• Teacherhi they are here
• Teacherthey want to know what the pointy thing hanging out of it's nose it
• Bugscope Teamwelcome to bugscope!
• Teacheris
• Bugscope Teamit looks to be an antenna
• Bugscope Teamthat is a seta, probably sensory
• Bugscope Teamwe are looking at a claw
• Bugscope Teamah, scott knows better than me, it's a seta
• Bugscope Teamthe hooks are the claws
• Bugscope Teamif you take the mag down you can see much more of the owlfly larva
• Teacherwhat kind of bug is it
• Bugscope Teamwe are at 2412x now
• Bugscope Teamit is an owlfly larva
• Bugscope Teamsetae (sea-tea) are hair like structures that most insects have. the setae stick through the exoskeleton of the insect, and attach to nerves. that's how they sense their environment
• Bugscope Teaman owlfly is a neuropteran; it is not really a fly
• Bugscope Teamowlflies are predatory -- they eat other insects
• Bugscope Teamcan you see the controls on the upper right? at the top you can select minus to make the mag go down

• Bugscope TeamOwlflies get their common name because they have huge eyes and they hunt at night, just like owls.
• Bugscope Teammr. B, if you get lost driving, just try clicking on another preset and it'll take you there automatically
• Bugscope Teamhere you can use the focus button to bring the focus in
• Bugscope Teamyay!

• 11:23 am
• Bugscope Teamthis is a wild looking critter
• Bugscope Teamwe are looking, now, at a silverfish
• Teacherwhere are the eyes
• Bugscope Teamthis is the ventral side -- the underside
• Bugscope TeamSilverfish are among the most primitive of insects
• Bugscope Teamso the eyes are hard to see, on the left and right but covered up mostly by setae
• Teacheris it a dangerous bug?
• Bugscope Teamno they are more annoying I think
• Bugscope Teamsilverfish have scales, unlike most insects

• Bugscope Teambutterflies, moths, skippers, and very few other insects have scales
• Teacherthe kids are taking turns driving the microscope
  Bugscope Teamcool!
• Bugscope TeamSilverfish can sometimes damage papers, but they cannot harm humans or pets. They are only dangerous if you are a book.
• Bugscope Teamhey Great!
• Bugscope Teamsome of the presets have slipped a little since we set up
• Teacherwhat is the hair looking stuff
  Bugscope Teamthat is just what you think-- hair! except when they are found on insects, we are supposed to call them setae or seta for singular
• Bugscope Teamsomeone might want to take the mag down lower to get a better perspective
• 11:28 am
• Bugscope Teamat first it is surprising to us how much 'hair' insects and other small arthropods have

• Bugscope Teamthe hair -- 'setae' -- is used to gather information about the environment
• Bugscope Teamthis is a haltere on the side of the thorax of a fruit flu
• Bugscope Teamfly
• Bugscope Teamthe setae are connecting to the insect's nervous system and they allow the insect to detect sound, to smell, and to taste
• Bugscope Teamyou can also see a spiracle
• Bugscope TeamFlies have only two wings, where almost all other insects have four wings.
• Bugscope Teamsome setae are chemosensory, and of those some are 'tuned' to detect specific chemical scents and some are more general
• Bugscope TeamFlies are in the insect order "Diptera": which means "two-wing"
• Bugscope Teamand some setae are mechanosensory -- very much like whiskers on a cat or rat that help it feel its way in the dark

• Bugscope Teamthis is the head of a small moth
• Bugscope Teamyou can see the compound eye, which is composed of many individual facets called ommatidia
• Teacherwhat are the things that look like feathers
• Bugscope Teamthe individual facets function like individual lenses and send multiple images to the brain
• Bugscope Teamthose are scales, like we saw on the silverfish
• 11:33 am
• Bugscope Teamscales are what make butterfly wings feel silky, and they come off very easily
• Bugscope Teamscales help those insects escape from webs

• Bugscope Teamthis is the head of a fruit fly
• Bugscope Teamyou can see its antennae
• Bugscope Teamin two parts -- a sort of pad and a tree-like portion
• Bugscope Teamyou can also see its compound eyes
• Bugscope Teamthey call these aristate antennae
• Bugscope Teama huge proportion of the brain is dedicated, in fruit flies, to processing visual signals
• Teacherwow
• Teachercan you see the mouth in this image
  Bugscope TeamThe mouth is just "south" of the image, you can see part of the mouth here.
• Bugscope TeamThis looks like a female to me, usually female flies have eyes that are far apart, whereas males have eyes that meet in the middle of their "foreheads"
• Bugscope Teamcompound eyes have an advantage over our eyes in that they allow the insect to perceive motion much more quickly than we do
• Bugscope Teamthe mouth is sort of turned down, and almost out of the image -- as Annie says
• Bugscope Teamyou can use click to center to move where the microscope is imaging
• Bugscope Teamyou guys are driving a $600,000 electron microscope
• 11:39 am
• Bugscope Teamwherever the electron beam is directed we will get an image

• Bugscope Teamnow you may want to click on Magnify, on the minus button, to see where we are
• Bugscope Teambecause what we are seeing is 'live,' in real time, sometimes the sample will move from its original saved position

• Bugscope Teamall of the 'bugs' we are looking at in the microscope today are coated with nanometers of gold-palladium
• Bugscope Teamthese are tenent setae -- they are the tiny bristly hairs that help an insect cling to a vertical surface or even a ceiling
• Bugscope TeamI will take the mag down a bit and show you where we are

• Bugscope Teamthis is a scale, close up, from a Monarch butterfly
• Bugscope Teamthe samples we are looking at are all inside the microscope and under vacuum
• Bugscope Teamthat is, there is no air inside the chamber where the 'bugs' are

• 11:44 am

• Teacherwhy do the scales have holes in then
• Bugscope Teamit makes them light
• Bugscope Teamthe holes and the patterns are in part responsible for the colors we see, and as Annie says they also make the structure very lightweight
• Bugscope Teamscales are kind of like feathers are to a bird
• Bugscope Teamwhen insects fly, the air feels thick to them, sort of like how water feels to us when we swim in it
• Bugscope Teamsome of the holes in the scales will have tiny granules of pigment in them

• Bugscope Teamthe scales can have both 'real' colors and structural colors
• Teacherwhat kind of bug is this?
• Bugscope Teamthis is one of the setae on the silverfish
• Bugscope Teamusually setae are not so detailed
• Bugscope Teamthese are 'plumose' setae

• Bugscope Teamthis is the center of the head of one of the owlfly larvae
• Bugscope Teamwe set this up so you could take the mag down lower and see just where we are looking
• 11:49 am
• Bugscope Teamlike a surprise for you

• Bugscope Teamnow you can see the jaws
• Bugscope Teamand you can imagine more easily that these are related to antlions
• Bugscope Teamthere is another owlfly larvae to the left, I think
• Bugscope Teamand on that one you can see that its eyes are on little stalks
• Teacherwow

• Bugscope Teamthis is a mite
• Bugscope Teamand unusually, it is upside down
• Teacherwhat part of the mite is it
• Bugscope Teamthe mite is on the body of a very large millipede
• Bugscope Teamthat is the whole mite
• Bugscope Teamit is built sort of like a hubcap
• Bugscope Teamif we take the mag down here we can see the relative size of the millipede and the mite

• Teacheris this a piece of salt
• Bugscope Teamthis is salt from a Wendy's restaurant
• Bugscope Teammillipedes are herbivore or decomposers, where centipedes are predators
• Bugscope Teamyou can see that it has a cubic crystal structure
• 11:54 am
• Bugscope Teamsalt is like that, and sugar is not
• Bugscope Teamsugar does not form cubes
• Bugscope Teamunless of course it is molded into a cube
• Studentare we finished?
• Bugscope TeamEmily we just gave you control of the microscope
• Studentoh
• Studenti cant see any of the presets
• Bugscope Teamyou may drive if you would like
• Studentthis is still mrs b

• Bugscope Teamif you click F5 it will change the screen so that you can see all of it

• Bugscope Teamhey cool!
• Bugscope Teamthis is the other owlfly larva
• Bugscope Teamsee the eyes on little promontories?
• Studentdo we see the mouth?
• Bugscope Teamthey have very few facets compared to flying insects
• Bugscope Teamthe mouth will be on the other side of the head
• Bugscope Teamand it is not obvious when we do see it
• Bugscope Teamthe giant jaws are part of the mouth

• Bugscope Teampreset 10 shows the other side of the head
• 11:59 am
• Studentwhat are we looking at now?
• Bugscope Teamnow you can see what a few ommatidia look like, up close
• Bugscope Teamthis is someone's eye...
• Bugscope Teamif you take the mag down maybe we can tell what kind of insect it is

• Bugscope Teamokay I know
• Bugscope Teamnow
• Bugscope Team]this is one of the moths

• Bugscope Teamand this is another mite!
• Bugscope Teamthis one seems to be clinging to a seta
• Bugscope Teamthey are blind, and it might have just bumped into it

• Bugscope Teamthis is cool too
• Bugscope Teamyou can see where there were once lots of tiny scales
• Studentwhat is this
• Bugscope Teamand they have all fallen out
• Bugscope Teamthis is the top of the head of the moth we were just looking at
• Bugscope Teamwe can see just one part of one tiny scale
• Bugscope Teammites may also be able to "smell" their host insect, so they can find them without actually seeing them. Insects often have remarkable chemical senses.
• Bugscope Teamthe micron bar on the lower left of the screen shows 14, which is about 7 bacteria across
• 12:04 pm
• Bugscope Teamif we had bacteria in the 'scope we would have no problem seeing them

• Studentoh really
• Studentwow this is so neat
• Bugscope Teamthis is something we put on the stub for fun sometimes
• Studentthe students are enjoying it
• Bugscope Teamit's the fluff from a milkweed pod
• Studentwhat is this?
• Bugscope Teamgreat!
• Bugscope Teamif I had mounted it correctly we would be seeing the empty holes rather than this side
• Bugscope Teambut it still looks cool
• Bugscope Teamthe fluff is so fine that it is difficult to mount it and know the right side is up

• Bugscope TeamI took the mag down here so you could see more of it

• Studentwow this was so wonderful!

• Studentthank you guys so much
• Studentit is wonderful that you guys do this
• Bugscope TeamSure!
• Bugscope Teamyou are really welcome
• Bugscope TeamThis is fun for us
• Bugscope TeamYou can imagine that it is really fun for us.
• Studentyes

• Studentwell i have to get ready for music

• Studentthanks again!!

• Bugscope TeamThank you for the questions!
• 12:10 pm
• Bugscope TeamWell Thank You!
• Bugscope TeamSee you next time!

• Studenti will email you the story that the newspaper is doing on us
• Studentonce i see it in the paper
• Bugscope Teamgreat!
• Studenti am signing off now
• Bugscope Teamwe would appreciate it
• Bugscope Teamgoodbye all!
• Bugscope TeamBye!

• Bugscope TeamOver and out!