Connected on 2011-02-01 08:30:00
from , Tamaulipas, Mexico
- 8:07 am
- Bugscope TeamDavid I am trying to make presets.
- Bugscope TeamWe connect at 8:30, right?
- Bugscope TeamI locked the controls so I can finish making the presets.
- Teachershould I log off or just wait
- Bugscope Teamno it's fine if you can just wait
- 8:13 am
- 8:19 am
- 8:25 am
- Bugscope Teamhey no problem -- I am trying to give you as many choices as possible
- 8:31 am
- Bugscope TeamMrB you should have control now
- Teacherwill we be able to log in the students when you release the controls?
- Bugscope Teamplease try it out, let me know if you have any problems, we are ready to roll
- Bugscope Teamyes you can
- Bugscope Teamanytime
- Bugscope Teamclick to center should work for you now
- Bugscope Teamyou should be able to log students in as students, from the drop-down choices, and they should not need passwords
- Teacherwe´re having problems with our wireless student connections but mine is working,student swill be here at 8:36
- Bugscope Teammosquito compound eye
- Bugscope Teamgood morning!
- Bugscope Teamwelcome to Bugscope!
- Bugscope Teamplease let us know when you have questions!
- 8:38 am
- Bugscope Teamthese are the sponging mouthparts of a tiny fly
- 8:43 am
- Teacherwe}re on, good morning and thanks
- Bugscope Teamyay!
- Bugscope Teamthey rarely look this good
- Bugscope Teamif you take the mag down you can see where you are on the fly's head
- Bugscope Teamgood job focussing -- it's basically up or down
- Bugscope Teamthis is a male mosquito eye
- Bugscope Teammosca-ito
- Bugscope Teamthis mosquito was sent to us in ethanol, and then we critical point dried it
- 8:48 am
- Bugscope Teamwe usually call this Aztec salt
- Bugscope Teamit doesn't look like normal salt -- it has those incised features
- Bugscope Teamstudents please feel free to ask us questions
- Studentwhy is it called aztec salt
- Bugscope Teamwe call it Aztec because to us it looks like Aztec carvings
- StudentCool
- Bugscope Teamit has an anti-caking agent in it we think that gives them these cool shapes
- Bugscope Teamthe sodium chloride still forms a cubic crystal but it has those incised patterns
- Studentis it chemically similar to table salt
Bugscope Teamyes it is but it may have sodium azide in it as well
- Bugscope Teamthis is the head of a hawk moth
- Bugscope Teamthose furry things are all scales
- Bugscope Teammoths and butterflies are covered with scales, and the scales charge up with electrons
- Studentwhat is the greatest magnification you can get?
Bugscope Teamwe can go over 600,000x, but there's not much to see there
- 8:53 am
- Bugscope Teamwhen we use the microscope for research, which is most of the time, the max mag for publishable images is usually about 200,000x
- Bugscope Teamwhen we use the 'scope for Bugscope, we keep the sample at a long working distance from the electron source so we can get low mag images
- StudentHow much this microscope cost?
Bugscope Teamaround 12 years ago it cost around $600,000
- Studentwow!
- Bugscope Teamthese are the tarsi -- the 'forearm' segments
- Bugscope Teamlooks like a scale from another insect there
- Bugscope Teamthe thing that looks like a surfboard
- StudentHow many people usually enters to this page? (daily)
Bugscope Teamwe run usually two Bugscope sessions a week, so usually it is just two schools a week, plus guests.
- Bugscope Teampeople can log on as guests whenever a session is running
- 8:58 am
- Bugscope Teamthe rest of the time people use the microscope for their research
- Bugscope Teamhere is a close up view of a scale
- Bugscope Teampeople look at nanopatterning they've done, self-healing polymers, bacteria, food samples, flexible silicon, pollen
- Bugscope Teamyou can see the holes in it-- they help make the scales lighter, and also they bend the light- creating colors
- Bugscope Teamwe don't get entomologists very often, but the week of the 14th they'll be here looking at their own insects all week
- Studentis there a simple explanation of how an electron microscope works?
Bugscope Teamhttp://virtual.itg.uiuc.edu/training/EM_tutorial/ is an animated flash video we made
- Bugscope Teamyou could learn in an hour no proble,
- Bugscope Teamno problem..
- StudentHow many years I need to study to be able to use this microscope?
Bugscope Teamit is really easy to use
Bugscope TeamIt's uncommon for grade schools to have access to an electron microscope, but if you're in the sciences it's not uncommon to get to use one during a lab class at the college level
Bugscope TeamAnd then of course the majority of the serious work is done by graduate students
- Bugscope Teamthese are the mandibles
- 9:03 am
- Bugscope Teamthere is some juju right where they meet
- Studentcute!
- Bugscope Teamyou can see another insect's scale there, above
- Bugscope Teamthe insect may have thrown up when it died, and that's what that little blob is
- Bugscope Teamladybugs eat other insects, often little ones like aphids
- Bugscope Teamthere is an aphid on the stub today
- Studentwhat is juju?
- Bugscope Teamjuju is our all-purpose term for slime or junk or stuff we don't recognize
- Studentthx foe explaining juju
- Bugscope Teamthis is a small area on the antenna of this wasp
- Bugscope Teaminsect 'hairs' are called setae, pronounced see-tee
- Studentgiiuu!!
- Bugscope Teamthe setae can be mechanosensory -- touch sensitive
- Bugscope Teamthey can be chemosensory, meaning they can taste chemicals in the air or that touch them
- 9:09 am
- Bugscope Teamthey can be thermosensory -- hot/cold sensing
- Bugscope Teamand near claws there are often sticky pads that have 'tenent setae' on them
- Bugscope Teamtenent, like Spanish 'tener,' means that the tiny setae hold onto things
- Bugscope Teamwhen we get really close to the sample like this, it can charge up with electrons
- Bugscope Teamthose lines we are seeing are from what is called 'charging'
- Bugscope Teamwhen we beam electrons at a sample, like we are doing, we want the sample to be conductive or else the electrons will not be shed -- they won't go to ground
- Studentwhy is their a cavity in the chemo receptors?¿
- Bugscope Teamso the samples are coated with gold-palladium to make them conductive
- StudentHow can you test the animal to know if they are thermosensory, chemosensory or mechanosensory???????
Bugscope Teamwe don't always know, but entomologists can mask receptors and see if the insect does not respond to a stimulus, for example
- Bugscope Teamthe cavity sometimes is the place where the chemical scents, for example, are collected
- 9:14 am
- Studentwhat is that part of the bug
Bugscope Teamthis is the ovipositor tip. It's used to deposit eggs
- Bugscope Teaminsects get a great deal of information from the air, as from pheromones
- Bugscope Teamants get almost all of their 'marching orders' from chemical scents
- Teacherwhere do the eggs come out?
Bugscope Teamthe eggs come out of that slit, which looks very thin since it's a bit desiccated
- Studentso everytime a fly stands in my food they leave eggs or juju?
Bugscope Teamno that is a myth. They might spit on your food to help dissolve it before slurping it up, which is still gross
- Bugscope Teamthere are many species of tiny parasitic wasps that use their stingers both as stingers and as ovipositors; they inject their eggs into caterpillars that they have paralyzed with their venom
- StudentO.0
- Bugscope Teamyeah be sure to tip your flies so they don't spit on your food
- StudentThanks for the tip!
- Student:)
- Bugscope Teamocelli are simple eyes that help flying insects keep oriented with the sun, or with dark/light
- 9:19 am
- Bugscope Teamfruit flies eat rotting fruit
- Bugscope Teamwe don't have any spiders in the 'scope today, but they have eight eyes that are often not very good
- StudentDo you have coakoroaches in exhibition???
- Bugscope Teamhere you can see the antennae, coming out of the front of the fly's head
- Bugscope Teamflies in general like to consume decaying matter. If it's old rotten food, that is where they might lay eggs. They lay their eggs in a place where the larvae can easily feed without looking too hard for food- like the garbage can
- Bugscope Teamthere was something that looked like a roach...
- Bugscope TeamI can try to drive us to it...
- StudentWhy everything needs to be in greyish?
- Bugscope Teamoops well this was tiny and I thought it might've been a roach, but it is a leafhopper
- Bugscope Teamthis is the head of the big wasp
- Bugscope Teamyou can see its ocelli, sort of in the middle of the head
- Studentit looks like a heart
- StudentWhats that juju?
Bugscope Teamyou mean stuck to the antenna?
- 9:25 am
- Studentyeap
Bugscope Teamcouldn't really tell -- you know we see a lot of stuff we don't recognize, even after doing this for so long
- Bugscope Teamhere you can see a couple of spiracles, which are like breathing tubes
- Studentwhat would happen if a parastic wasp stung you?
Bugscope Teamparasitic wasps probably wont lay eggs in you. They like to lay their eggs in insects like caterpillars
Bugscope Teamit would still inject you with the venom, so if you are allergic be careful. The stinging of a parasitic wasp is used to paralyze the insect/spider. Then it later lays the eggs.
- Studentthnks
- Bugscope Teamand you can see the shaft of the haltere, bottom middle of the screen now
- Studentthankyou for answering our questions
- Studenthow can you know if its a parastic wasp or not?
Bugscope Teamthey are often very small, solitary, and have long stingers; the people coming in in 2 weeks study them
- Bugscope Teamyeah no problem- we like doing this. Thanks for taking the time to do bugscope with us
- Teacherthanks guys, bell has rung so you´re free to do your other jobs! you had 150 middle school kids who reallyy got off on it.
- Bugscope Teamthis is the haltere
- Studentwell, thanks for the insect tour! I really enjoyed it!!! It was interesting to see all those cool insects with zoom. -Montse :0) and Andrea :)
- Studentwhat do you reaserch about when your not in a guest session
Bugscope Teamwe run a lab with various microscopes. When we aren't using them, we have students or faculty using them.
- Bugscope TeamThank You!
- Bugscope TeamBye you all!
- StudentDo you like Justin Bieber???
Bugscope Teamhe's a little too young for us
- Bugscope TeamCate likes him, really.
- StudentGood Luck with your research!-Montse _0)
- Studentbye mariel thank you!!
- Bugscope TeamThank You!
- Bugscope Teamat any time you can go to your member page and look at the chat and the images from today
- Bugscope Teamhttps://bugscope.beckman.illinois.edu/members/2010-136 is your member page
- 9:30 am
- Bugscope Teamthis is inside the chamber where your samples are