Mahomet Seyomour High School
Session 2009-095

Application

School

Class

Project

Miscellaneous

Transcript

Connected on 2009-09-18 08:45:00 from , IL, US

• 7:54 am
• Bugscope Teamvac good, starting presets

• 8:00 am

• TeacherGood morning!
• Bugscope Teamhi clark, welcome to bugscope!
• Bugscope Teamwe are setting up presets at the moment
• TeacherWe will not be back until 8:45...just checking in!
• Bugscope TeamGood morning!
• Bugscope Teamcool, no problemo

• 8:06 am

• Teachermy classes today will be in 15-20 segments
• Bugscope Teamok, are the students going to login as well?
• TeacherWe have quiz at the beginning of the hour then we will meet with you guys...thanks again see you at 8:45
• Bugscope Teamok
• Teacherno we will do our class from my smartboard
• Bugscope Teamthe session is 3 hours, right?
• Teacherwe just turned in inects collections yesterday
• Bugscope Teamah, okay, smartboard is fine
• Teacheryes the session is 3 hours...off and on.
• Bugscope Teamso this is the hole school then? right?
• Bugscope Teami mean, you are trying to get all classes to see bugscope?
• Teacherno just my biology classes. So 4 different classes willl get a small dose of what you guys do

• Bugscope Teamah, okay, so 15-20 minute segments? so that means some time inbetween will be idle?
• 8:11 am
• Bugscope Teamidle for us i mean, but not idle for you?

• Bugscope TeamTwilight of the Idle
• TeacherYou are correct....Idle for you ....but NOT for me :)
• Bugscope Team:) cool, no problem.
• Bugscope Teamthis is so cool

• 8:16 am
• Bugscope TeamCate put a stunning sample together today.

• 8:24 am

• TeacherGreat-thank you

• 8:30 am

• TeacherWe are here....good morning!
• Bugscope TeamAh, so are you ready to start?
• Teacheryes
• Teacherwhat are we looking at?
• 8:35 am
• Bugscope Teamthis is a dragonfly tarsus

• Bugscope Teamok, i just unlocked the session
• Bugscope Teamyou should now see controls for the microscope on the right side of your browser
• Bugscope Teammagnify, navigation, focus, adjust
• Bugscope TeamYou now have control.

• Bugscope Teamgo ahead and ask any questions you have, we are here to answer them, and to help guide you to control the scope

• Bugscope Teamwe think this is cool because it is uncommon to see those 'claws' on this portion of the limb.
• Teacherwhat is a dragonfly tarsus?
• Bugscope Teamnotice the scale bar in the lower left of the image, 1 um = 1 micrometer (micron) = one millionth of a meter
• Bugscope Teamthe tarsi are the last several joints at the end of the arm or leg
• Bugscope Teamif you take the mag way down you can see where you are

• Bugscope Teamhad to pull the wings off of the dragonfly to get it on the stub

• Teacherwhat does the hairs do?
  Bugscope Teamthose hairs are vital! they are called setae (sea-tea), and they stick through the exoskeleton to nerves underneath, and so that's how insects feel their environment
• Bugscope Teamand if you had armor, as well, you would need a means of sensing your environment

• Bugscope Teaminsects have TONS of hair (setae)

• 8:41 am
• Bugscope Teambut we normally don't see the hair (setae) because we don't normally look at insects in a electron microscope... :)

• Bugscope Teamsome of the setae are mechanosensory, like cat or rat whiskers, and some are chemosensory, meaning they can be used to smell, to pick up scents, and some of the setae are thermosensory

• Bugscope Teamhere we see one of the compound eyes
• Bugscope Teamthis is still the dragonfly...
• Teacherhey this is andrew roney
• Teacherwhats up
• Bugscope Teamthe eye is called a compound eye - each facet has a lens in it. the facets are called ommatidia

• Bugscope Teamyo andrew, how's it going?
• Bugscope Teamthis dragonfly is also interesting to us because it has those pores in the palps that look like spiracles

• Teacherwhy is the eye compound?
  Bugscope Teamwell, the individual facets, or an ommatidium, the lens inside can't move around, it is fixed. so it needs a LOT more ommatidia in oder to get a wide angle view of the world...
• Bugscope Teamthe palps are the accessory mouthparts

• Bugscope Teamthere are several reasons it is beneficial to have compound eyes

• Bugscope TeamI think Alex is answering that...
• Teacherhow does this scaning miscroscope work?
  Bugscope Teamthe samples are coated with a very thin film (a few nanometers) of gold-palladium to make the surfaces conductive
• Bugscope Teamthe hundreds of facets of the compound eye also give the insect many different pictures of the world, all at once, and that seems to help the insect with vision. some flying insects have GREAT vision
• Bugscope Teamand we beam electrons at the samples in a vacuum chanber; what we see is the signal from the secondary electrons that come back from the sample
• 8:46 am
• Bugscope Teamsome compound eyes have thousands of facets, like this dragonfly does

• Bugscope Teamso we could not see color even if the samples had not been coated with gold-palladium (they look silver to the eye) because we are collecting the images as signal rather than light

• Bugscope Teamonce you have exhausted your interest in this you may choose from one of the other presets and check out something else

• Teacherwhat is the highs mag. we can go to ?
• Bugscope Teamthis is pretty cool too -- you can see the tenent setae that help this insect stick to surfaces -- such as walls and ceilings, for some insects

• Bugscope Teambut you can see that if you went that high there might not be much to see

• Bugscope Teamyou can see the segments of the legs here as well, the tarsi
• Bugscope Teamwhen we do high-res imaging we also work at a shorter distance from the samples than today
• Bugscope Teamand then the antenna's are wrapped around the face area...
• Bugscope Teamthis Mexican bean beetle has someone else's scales all over its face
• Bugscope Teamso it is hard to see the head, but it is right there
• Teacherwhat is a good one to see up close pteety good?

• Bugscope Teamtry preset 21 and see how that is

• 8:51 am

• Bugscope Teambrochosomes are produced by the leafhopper, and only by the leafhopper. brochosomes were unknown to mankind until someone looked at a leafhopper under an electron microscope. brochosomes are very very small!
• Bugscope TeamI did a little tweaking just now -- the sample drifted since we made the preset
• Teacheris that pollen on the antenna
  Bugscope Teamnope, these are the brochosomes

• Teacher?

• Teacherwhat is that?
• Bugscope Teamthose are much smaller than pollen -- they are usually a few hundred nm across
• Bugscope Teamthey are smaller than a micron (one millionth of a meter)
• Bugscope Teamthese are the brochosomes, produced by a leafhopper
• Bugscope Teamthey are waxy pellets that are thought to help the leafhopper keep its eggs from drying out
• Bugscope Teamleafhoppers have an 'anointing' behavior in which they spread these on their exoskeleton
• Bugscope Teamthe image would be much better if we were closer, but in order to be able to see larger portions of insects at low mag, we are at a long working distance
• TeacherWe just got kicked off...we are back.
  Bugscope Teamack, sorry, glad you are back
• Bugscope Teamif you click on the micron bar you can see some of the parameters we are working with

• TeacherThis class is about over...we will be back around 9:20. THANK YOU!

• Bugscope Teamok, see you then
• Bugscope TeamThank You!
• 9:01 am

• Bugscope TeamHI Stephanie!
• Bugscope TeamHi Sherfey! Where are you from?
• Bugscope Teamhi! i'm from the ento dept.... rob mitchell recruited me to help today!
• Bugscope TeamWe knew you might be on -- Welcome!
• Bugscope Teami don't know
• Bugscope Teamhow to do that
• Bugscope Teamhaha

• Bugscope Teamoh, cool

• Bugscope Teamyou can operate the 'scope using the controls on the top right, as you now know
• 9:06 am
• Bugscope Teamand you can also choose from among the presets, to the right of the chat
• Bugscope Teamthe class will not be back until about 9:25 if you would like to drive around

• Bugscope Teamanother thing -- you can click on a question someone gives us and write your answer so that it not only shows up in chat but in the space to the left
• Bugscope Teamwhen you click on the question it becomes highlighted and lets us all know that someone has chosen to answer it
• Bugscope Teamyeah! i'm here!
• 9:12 am

• Bugscope TeamPhew.
• 9:17 am
• Bugscope Teamheh
• 9:23 am

• TeacherHi, my 2nd hour class is here
• Bugscope Teamhi students, welcome to bugscope!
• Bugscope Teamhere is a nice friendly tick for you
• TeacherWhat part is this?
• Bugscope Teamyou can see the eyespots, and you can see the part -- the hypostome -- that sticks into your skin
• Bugscope Teamthose palps on either side fold away and the central part sticks into you
• Teacherwe do not have the magnification buttons on our screen
  Bugscope Teamah, i just transfered control to Clark1, you should see it now... sorry bout that
• Bugscope Teamthe lower portion holds fast with its recurved spines, and the top portion rasps the skin to get the blood out
• 9:29 am
• Teachercan we break the microscope if we go too far in?
  Bugscope Teamno you just won't see much, probably

• Bugscope Teamheh, no way. you can do ANYTHING with the controls. it won't break anything. we might need to reset some things if you drive off the edge, but that is no problemo
• Bugscope Teamthe tick is reclining against a stir stick

• Bugscope Teamit is also fully engorged with blood
• Bugscope TeamI think I found an RBC this morning. they are usually 8 to 14 microns in diameter
• Teacherwhat's RBC?
• Bugscope Teamit doesn't look perfect, though. they do not always airdry well. that is preset 9
• Bugscope Teamred blood cell
• Bugscope Teamerythrocyte
• Bugscope TeamAs you can see, and probably have experienced, ticks can expand to enormous sizes to hold all the blood they eat.
• Bugscope Teamavian RBCs have nuclei, but those of mammals do not

• Bugscope Teamit's like a globe!

• Bugscope Teamonly the female ticks engorge this much
• Teacherhow much does the microscope cost?
  Bugscope Teamabout $600,000 in 1998
• Bugscope Teamand it's to feed her batch of eggs
• 9:34 am
• Bugscope Teamsee the little ridges? when it was small they were folded up
• Teacherhas the technology changed a lot in 11 years?
• Bugscope Teamit is a nice one, with a field emission electron gun plus the capability to work in 'wet mode,' plus a lot of extra stuff

• Bugscope Teamsince 1998 this type of microscope has gotten easier to use, but they are basically the same

• Bugscope Teamthe microscope has its own air, filtered electrical power, chilled water, nitrogen, etc.

• Bugscope TeamRob and Stephanie confirmed for us that this is actually a damselfly.

• Bugscope Teamthe liquid nitrogen is very interesting, i'm afraid of that stuff, but scott handles it like it's no big deal
• Bugscope Teamclick to stop
• TeacherHouston, we lost control of the magnification!!!!!
• Bugscope Teamand go to a lower mag if you do not see anything interesting
• Bugscope Teamaw

• Bugscope Teamsorry

• Bugscope Teamcan you drive now?
• Bugscope Teamwhen using "click to drive", you click once to start moving, then click again to stop... yay! good recovery!
• Bugscope TeamI made the last few changes...
• 9:39 am
• Bugscope Teamhmmm, let me see
• Teacherdo we need to re-login?
• Bugscope Teamtry refreshing your browser, F5
• TeacherYAAAAAY!!!! thanks!
• Bugscope Teamdo you see the controls at all?
• Teacher=)

• Teacheryes we have them now

• Bugscope Teamcool palps here
• Bugscope Teamthe one at the bottom of the screen looks like a spiracle, up close
• Bugscope Teamthe palp looks like it has a spiracle, that is
• Teacherbe back in 15 or 20 minutes, class change
• Bugscope Teamokay
• Bugscope Teamokay see you soon!

• 9:48 am

• 9:57 am
• Teacherhi we are back! what are we looking at?
• Bugscope Teamwelcome to bugscope!
• Teacherwhat are we looking at?

• Bugscope TeamIt looks like some "taste buds" on a damselfly.

• Bugscope TeamYou can see as we zoom out that the palps are the four "arms" that come out from the mouth.

• Teacherwhy aren
• Teacherwhy arent they in their mouth
  Bugscope Teaminsect's don't have mouths like we do... the internal parts and the external parts are collectively called 'the mouth'

• Teacherwhat is that?
• 10:02 am

• Bugscope TeamWell, at the moment, we are seeing a lot of hairs, or 'setae', on the insect's body.
• Bugscope Teamthese hairs, they are called setae (sea-tea) and they help insects the sense their environment

• Bugscope Teamthe setae stick through the exoskeleton, to nerves underneath

• Bugscope TeamAhh. That was the base of the antenna.
• Bugscope Teamah, this is a damselfly

• Bugscope Teamsince the insect exoskeleton has no nerves in it, those setae are vital so the insect can feel it's way around. the setae can be chemosensory or mechanosensory, at least
• Bugscope Teaminsects smell things with chemosensory setae
• Bugscope Teamnow human, instead of having an exoskeleton, we have skin, and nerves in our skin to the feeling for us...

• 10:07 am
• Bugscope Teamnice job driving the scope!

• Bugscope Teamhmm, are these ocelli? yes!
• Bugscope Teamthose are simple eyes
• Bugscope Teamas opposed to compound eyes

• Bugscope Teamah, okay, these are wing scales

• Bugscope Teamwow, if you look closely, you can see a compound eye buried under all the scales, to the right side of the head

• Bugscope Teamthis poor little dude has his entire face covered in scales!
• Bugscope Teamthis is the face of the Mexican bean beetle, covered with scales from some other insect.
• Bugscope TeamInsects with scales include butterflies, moths, skippers, silverfish, mosquitos, and very few beetles

• Teacherwhat is this?

• Bugscope Teamthis moved a bit since we made the preset

• 10:12 am
• Teacherwhat is this?

• Bugscope Teamit is a closeup of the claw of an insect related to a grasshopper
• Bugscope Teamsee the scalebar?
• Teacheryes
• Bugscope Teambacteria the rod-shaped ones called bacilli, are often 2 microns in length

• Bugscope Team1 um = 1 micrometer (micron) = 1 millionth of a meter

• Bugscope Teamso we would see bacteria if there were any

• Bugscope Teamso that was a close up of a tarsi segment, just below the claw

• Bugscope Teamnow you see the claw, and you can also tell that this little dude is not likely to be able to climb walls
• Bugscope Teamit has no pads (the pad is called a pulvillus) with tenent setae on them that help insects stick to vertical surfaces
• Teacherwhich preset has the bsomes on its antennea?
• Bugscope Team22
• Bugscope Teamonce you get there we may have to move the position slightly
• Bugscope TeamThe claws are useful for climbing rough surfaces, though - like tree bark.

• Bugscope Teamah, there are the brochosomes

• Bugscope Teambrochosomes were first discovered by scientists in 1952, when looking at leafhopper under an electron microscope
• Teacherwhat do the spears do?
• Bugscope Teamthis is kind of disappointing because these are so small we would normally work much closer to the sample to get better resolution
• 10:17 am

• Bugscope Teamyou can see that these are sensory, and likely mechanosensory because of the way they are fluted
• Bugscope Teamthose spears are setae, i think?
• Bugscope Teamthey are likely wind or touch sensors, I bet
• Teacherwhat is their importance?
• Bugscope Teaminsects do not have skin, and so they do not have nerve endings in their skin like we do
• Bugscope Teamthey have an exoskeleton, which is kind of like having armor
• Bugscope Teammost, if not all, of the hair like things you see on insects help them to sense their environment. it'd kinda like cat whiskers, but imagine them all over the insect body, so that's how they feel, with the hairs
• Teachercool\
• Teachercool
• Bugscope Teamso in order to be able to sense their environment they have hundreds and sometimes thousands of setae that help them feel and taste the outer world
• TeacherWe won't be back until 11:15. THANK YOU! YOU'RE SOOOOO COOL!!!
• Bugscope Teamsome of the setae are also thermosensory
• Bugscope Teamsome setae (preset #13) are there to help insects stick to things. tenent setae use a very special force to help them stick to walls and such
• Bugscope TeamThank You!
• Bugscope TeamInsects also have spines for defense, but they are much larger. Notice that while these look dangerous and pointy, we're still only at 8 microns!
• Bugscope Teamyou all are doing GREAT!
• Bugscope Teamvan der waals... two a's. those darn dutch!
• 10:23 am
• Bugscope Teamvan der waals is the name of a dutch scientist who helped discover the force that is used by tenent setae
• Bugscope Teamthat force is called the van der waals force
• Bugscope Teamthe Gecko setae people think they have that wrapped up, you know, since those setae are much smaller
• Bugscope Teamthey think only the Gecko setae are actually utilizing van der waals. I think it is a nerd pride thing, kind of funny
• Bugscope TeamVertebrate researchers. What do they know?
• Bugscope Teamha. they were just waiting for a chance to be junior physicists
• Bugscope Teamor chemists
• Bugscope Teamwe had contacted them a few years ago when the Gecko setae thing came out, and they were rude so I am ragging on them.
• 10:29 am

• Bugscope Teambrochosomes, much clearer
• 10:34 am
• Bugscope Teamstill not as good as we could get if the working distance was closer

• 10:54 am
• Bugscope TeamClark1, when you are ready again, you might want to do a refresh (F5), just to make sure things work fine. sometimes idling can confuse things...
• 11:01 am

• 11:10 am
• TeacherWe will be here in about 2-3 minutes
• Bugscope Teamsounds good, we are here
• TeacherHi
• Bugscope Teamhi, welcome to bugscope!
• Bugscope TeamWelcome to Bugscope!
• Bugscope Teamhi!
• 11:15 am
• Bugscope Teamwe are currently look at tiny little things called brochosomes
• Bugscope TeamHere we see brochosomes on a spine on the antenna of some sort of lepidopteran.
• Bugscope Teambrochosomes come from the leafhopper, they are so small that scientists didn't discover them until 1952, with the help of an electron microscope
• TeacherWhat are their function?

• Bugscope TeamBrochosomes are produced only by leafhoppers, but they get onto other insects as well. Sometimes because the insect was eating the leafhopper and sometimes because they were collected together.

• Bugscope TeamThey are thought to help keep leafhopper eggs from drying out.
• Bugscope TeamThey'll show up on adult leafhoppers as well.

• Bugscope TeamWater loss is actually a major problem for insects, so they have many different ways of keeping water from getting out.
• Bugscope TeamLeafhoppers have what is called an 'anointing behavior,' in which they spread the brochs onto the surface of their exoskeleton

• Bugscope Teamthere is a leafhopper in the 'scope today, but it is kind of sad-looking.'

• TeacherWhat is this picture showing?
• Bugscope Teamnow we are looking at the mouthparts of a damselfly
• Bugscope TeamYou can see four 'arms' coming out of the mouth - those are the "palps".
• Bugscope Teamcheck out the HUGE compound eye in the upper left
• Bugscope Teamwe see mostly the jaws and the palps, which help the damselfly manipulate and taste its food

• 11:20 am

• Bugscope Teambees have brushy tongues like that we just saw

• Bugscope TeamExcellent view there of the eye. All those little hexagons are the ommatidia.

• Bugscope Teamunlike human eye sockets, the compound eye can't move the lens around, so it needs to have many facets curved around, each lens pointing a different direction, so the insect can see a wide angle
• Bugscope Teamthat is why it is hard to catch flying insects -- to them we may seem to move in geological time

• Bugscope Teamthis is the tip of a spider's 'hand'
• Bugscope TeamBut, the downside is that the insect has a much blurrier view of the world. Our eyes are better at picking up details.
• Bugscope Teamspiders produce silk that is not sticky as well as the normal sticky web silk

• Bugscope Teamspiders can also, if they get stuck, eat the web. they are good recyclers, or some of them are

• Bugscope Teamit's easy to forget how small these things are we are looking at. check our the scale bar in the lower left, 1 um = 1 micrometer (micron) = 1 millionth of a meter. that is mega-small!

• Bugscope Teamanother cool thing about spiders is that they have a autotomizing capability: they can just let one of their legs go, fall off, if for example they sense that it has been bitten and has venom entering it.
• 11:25 am
• Teacherare you excited to talk to us?
  Bugscope Teamtotally! doing these sessions is very cool for us
• Bugscope Teamspiders are soft-bodied, so when they die and dry out they shrivel quite a bit
• Bugscope Teamuh yeah!
• Bugscope Teamyeah! especially about the tick!
• Bugscope Teamwe are lucky to be able to work with this cool equipment, and we are happy to be able to share it

• Bugscope Teambugscope was started more than 10 years ago, with a goal to try to get school kids interested in science. we hope this works!
• Bugscope Teamthis is one of the tick claws
• Bugscope Teamticks are not insects, and when they are adults they have eight legs

• Bugscope Teamthis one is swollen with blood

• Bugscope TeamPretty creepy looking.

• Teacherhow big can a tick get?
  Bugscope TeamGood question. On a human, most of them are pretty small - usually no mor than a centimeter when full of blood.

• Bugscope TeamI have never seen one larger than a very small grape, or a very big pea

• Bugscope Teamwhen engorged they can get the size of a dime or so
• Bugscope Teamthis is the part that rasps against your skin and gets the blood moving
• Bugscope Teamonly the females get fully engorged like this... the blood is to feed her mass of eggs
• Bugscope Teamticks can lay between 20,000 and 40,000 eggs at a time
• 11:31 am

• Teacherthats a lot of eggs...

• Teacherwhats the best way yo kill a tick?
  Bugscope Teamonce it is off of you, you can put it in ethanol and send it to us
  Bugscope Teamwell, a single tick? i jut rub it against my skin, and that seems to smash it. but ticks are a major carrier of disease, so population control of ticks is a very large and important field of study

• Bugscope Teamthis is the hypostome -- the part that sticks into your skin

• Bugscope Teamwhen they're on you, it's best to use tweezers to grab them as close to the head as possible and pull straight out
• Bugscope Teamyes! i love that idea

• Bugscope TeamHowever, don't do things like hold a match next to it - that will actually make the tick regurgitate into you, which increases the chance that you catch a disease.
• Teachergive us ur best bug joke :D
  Bugscope Teamwhere would you put an injured insect??? in an ANTbulance!
• Bugscope Teamthis appears to be a kind of sad looking RBC
• Bugscope Teamtime flies like an arrow...... fruit flies like a banana!

• Bugscope Teamthis is the mouth of a water boatman

• Bugscope Teamyou can see the super sharp jaws
• Bugscope Teamright here
• Bugscope Teaminsect mouthparts usually work sideways compared to ours

• 11:36 am
• Bugscope Teamyou can see the palps here, too

• Bugscope Teamyeah the ants will take care of injured insects for sure

• Bugscope Teamball and socket
• Teacherwhats this
• Bugscope Teamthis is the base of one of the palps, I think
• Bugscope Teamantennae have similar bases

• Bugscope TeamIt's a ball-and-socket joint, just like a human hipbone. Gives a wide range of movement.

• Bugscope TeamThis is a great view of the tip of an insect's foot.

• Bugscope TeamQ: why was the centipede late? A: because he was playing little miss piggy with his baby brother

• Bugscope TeamSee the claws for holding onto rough surfaces, and the pads have oil that lets them stick to flat things like glass.
• Bugscope Teamthis Mexican bean beetle has scales all over its face
• Bugscope Teamthe scales are from other insects: moths or butterflies, for example
• Teachercan you show us a preset of the sticky pads on an insects foot?
  Bugscope Teami just clicked on preset #13, that is the tenent setae (sticky pad) on a water-boatman
• Bugscope TeamMexican bean beetles are herbivores, so it probably just got on there by accident.

• Teacherthank you

• Bugscope Teamthis is part of the leg of the water boatman, which I might have misidentified

• Bugscope Teamit is an aquatic beetle

• Bugscope Teamsee its eye?
• 11:41 am
• Teacheryes

• Teachergoodbye for now
• Bugscope Teamit is made so that the beetle can see underwater
• Bugscope Teamthank you clark1, you did GREAT!
• TeacherGreat....my classes are finished! 120 kids saw the scope today--thank you!!!
• Bugscope TeamThanks for the questions!
• TeacherThe last group did a fantastic job!
• Bugscope Teamgreat job, you did really well
• TeacherSee you next year
• Bugscope Teamremember....
• Bugscope Teamthe chat and images are saved to you member page...
• Teacherremember?
• Bugscope Teamhttp://bugscope.beckman.illinois.edu/members/2009-095/
• Bugscope Teamhttp://bugscope.beckman.illinois.edu/members/2009-095
• Teacheroh yeah-got it.
• Bugscope Teamah sorry, was trying to piece out that sentence
• Bugscope TeamCool. See you next year!
• Bugscope Teamover and out need to beat the nerds to the cafeteria
• 11:46 am
• Bugscope Teamstopping rxl, disabling the session, locking
• Bugscope Teamnice session everyone
• Bugscope Teamover and out