Connected on 2011-03-29 16:15:00
from Cook, Illinois, United States
- 3:33 pm
- Bugscope Team'scope is pumping down
- Bugscope Teamyou can see the sample
- 3:44 pm
- 3:49 pm
- 3:54 pm
- GuestEverything smooth so far?
- 4:01 pm
- 4:06 pm
- Bugscope Teamwe are ready to roll
- Bugscope Teamyes really good
- TeacherHi
- Bugscope TeamI think the problems we had with Xavier were due to the heavy load on the 'net that day at Xavier
- Bugscope TeamHi Dr. Clishem!
- 4:11 pm
- TeacherHow's it going?
- Bugscope Teamwe are good, and good to go
- TeacherOkay. Class starts at 4:15. Some students are still strolling in. I have to give a brief intro and then we'll be ready to roll on our end. Some things look different.
- Bugscope Teamyeah let us know if you have questions
- Bugscope Teamthe presets are visible to the left if you use the arrow to shift the screen
- Bugscope Teamso you can shift the screen to the left, choose a preset, and then come back to the main screen to drive
- TeacherSo when are you going to add a video feed interface of the scientists? Or would that spoil things?
Bugscope Teamnever. yeah how would we do it? Cate is upstairs, I am at my desk or at the 'scope or at the control computer, Chaos
- Bugscope Teamalso, video feed would compete with the 'scope, which is what we want to feature
- Guesthi
Bugscope TeamHi Rapbanana!
- Bugscope TeamWelcome to Bugscope!
- 4:16 pm
- Guestthanks! im excited!
- Bugscope Teampresently, on the screen, we are looking at a small portion of the antenna of a bumblebee
- Bugscope Teamthe little platelike things are placoid sensilla, which are perhaps obviously sensory
- GuestOH MY GOD! wow!
- Bugscope Teamwe are not sure actually whether they are chemo- or mechanosensory
- Bugscope TeamDr C should have control now.
- GuestI can't believe the look of the hair by the magnification!
- TeacherWe're ready to start.
- Bugscope Teammechanosensors are touch sensory
- Bugscope Teamyou can see that the antenna is broken off, and we are at the end of the last segment
- Bugscope Teamthis is a small mosquito
- 4:21 pm
- TeacherI'm getting a message that my request was ignored.
Bugscope Teamsee if it works now
- Guestis that really his eyeballs?!?!
Bugscope Teamthe things that are curved around the donut like things are the eyes
- TeacherSorry. Looks good now.
- Bugscope Teamthese are the individual facets of the eye]
- TeacherWhy is it magnifying more when I am clicking - .
Bugscope Teamwhat are you clicking?
- Bugscope TeamI made it magnify, actually
- TeacherSJ, may I control now?
- Bugscope Teamthe ommatidia -- the individual eye facets -- are a little shrunken from what they were in life
- GuestWat are those hairlike things on his eyes? between the circular things
- 4:27 pm
- Guestare the insects we are looking at 2d or 3d?
Bugscope Teamthey are 3d. a scanning electron microscope has good depth of focus, and we are taking advantage of that
- TeacherMay I use the controls now?
Bugscope Teamyes try it!
- StudentWhat are the hair like follicles called?
Bugscope Teamthe things that look like hair are called setae
- Guest(i'm trying to understand how the bugscope works)
Bugscope Teamyou are driving a $600,000 electron microscope from your classroom
- GuestHow many eye facets are estimated in one eyeball?
- Bugscope Teamthe samples are in a vacuum chamber, and we are beaming electrons at them
- Bugscope Teamthe samples are coated with a few nanometers of gold-palladium to make them conductive
- Bugscope Teamthe electron beam rasters across the samples like a typewriter, line by line, but it is pretty quick
- GuestDOES HE HAVE A NOSE?
Bugscope Teaminsects mostly do not have noses; they have sensory setae that allow them to pick up smells in the air, or by contact
- Guest What is the donut shaped figure around the eyeball?
- Bugscope Teambut Rapbanana this is a weird mosquito, and we don't understand why the mouthparts look like they do; it's like it just became an adult but did not unfold
- Bugscope Teamin mosquitoes, the females are the ones that bite; the males don't do much other than breed. sometimes people are like that as well -- the males are relatively useless
- 4:32 pm
- TeacherCan we find ther part that stings you? Where would we click?
Bugscope Teamthere isn't one on this skeeter, but you can for sure see the spider's poison pore
- Guestwhere?
- Guestpoison pore?!
Bugscope Teamyes spiders inject venom into their prey; the venom digests the insides of the prey; and the spider sucks it all back up like a milkshake
- Bugscope Teamif Dr C clicks on the preset for the poison pore, to the left
- Bugscope Teamthis is live imaging using the electron microscope, but we did find cool places before the session so you would be able to look around without too much searchin
- Guestwhats is like at the joint?
- Studentwhat it like at the joint?
- GuestWhat are we looking? at a leg or joint?
Bugscope Teamthat was a legjoint, exactly, on the mosquito
- Bugscope Teamthis, now, is the tip of a spider's fang
- 4:37 pm
- Bugscope Teamanyway, in a scanning electron microscope the electron beam rasters across the sample and causes secondary electrons to be ejected from the surface of the sample. those secondary electrons provide the signal that becomes the images we see
- Guestdid the mosquito die in the cold? how do you find unsquished ones to put in vaccum chamber?
Bugscope Teamoften they do die in the cold -- when I catch them I put them in the freezer to kill them
- Studentid this a wing?
Bugscope Teamyes it is!
- Bugscope Teamthe 2ndary electrons that are ejected from the sample actually come from the conductive coating of gold-palladium we put on the sample
- Bugscope Teamso now we are looking at the microsetae on the surface of the wing
- Guestohhhhh, ok, thanks for answering all my questions!
Bugscope Teambe sure to ask whenever it doesn't quite make sense
- Bugscope Teamif a sample is super fresh and juicy the 'scope may not pump down
- GuestWhy are insects soooooo hairy?
- Guestsetae who said was a smell sensor?
Bugscope Teamsome chemosensory setae are smell sensors; other setae may be touch sensitive or hot/cold (thermo) sensory
- GuestWhy are insects covered wih hair?
Bugscope Teammostly because they need something that will help them sense their environment through the chitin, or cuticle -- the exoskeleton
- 4:42 pm
- Guestwhat are insects so hairy? (its like my beard! but all over)
Bugscope Teamit's like if you were wearing a coat of armor -- you would not be able to sense what was touching the surface of the armor -- so insects have setae that stick through and help them sense their environment
- Bugscope Teamso the hairs (setae) are mechanosensory -- like a cat or rat's whiskers; or chemosensory; or thermosensory
- Guest?
- GuestWhere is the venom pore, at the center?
Bugscope Teamyes if Dr C takes the mag to a lower mag it will be a little more impressive
- Bugscope Teamsome setae are also sticky, like those on the 'palm' of a fly
- Bugscope Teamnow you can see part of the 'retention plan'
- Bugscope Teamooh you can see how the fangs are serrated to cut into insects
- Bugscope Teamthose bumps are what hold the insect feature the spider is biting close to it
- TeacherPlease give Rapbanana the controls.
Bugscope Teamgot 'em!
- Bugscope TeamRapbanana if you keep taking the mag down you will see what the spider appears to be holding
- Bugscope Teamnow we see that we are between the chelicers
- Guestwhat are chelicers?
- 4:47 pm
- Bugscope Teamand you see someone's antennae, and part of his/her head
- Guestchelicers are what the spider uses to bite and inject venom?
- Bugscope Teamthe chelicers -- the chelicerae -- are the power behind the fangs
- Bugscope Teamyou can see that a small flying aphid is on top of the spider
- Guestis this a female or male?
Bugscope TeamI think it is a female spider because we don't see those large pedipalps
- Guestwhat kind of insect did this spide have for dinner?
- Bugscope Teamthe aphid actually just settled there when we processed the samples in a critical point dryer
- StudentWhat kind of spider is this?
- StudentIs there a mouth?
Bugscope Teamthey don't really have a mouth -- they suck their dinner up through the pores in their fangs as a liquid
- StudentWhat do you suggest we look at next?
Bugscope Teamthe spinnerets
- Guestwhere are the fangs?
- Guestdoes this spider spin webs?
Bugscope Teamyes it does, or did, or could have
- Bugscope Teamscientists have not been able to duplicate the spider's ability to produce web that goes from a liquid to a solid instantly
- Bugscope Teammoths can see UV light, which we cannot
- Bugscope Teamthese are a few of the ommatidia -- the facets of the compound eye
- 4:53 pm
- Bugscope Teambutterflies can also see UV light, and for example the cabbage white butterflies, which look pretty much white to us, have more detail in their wings that we cannot see
- Bugscope Teamthe tiny bumps we are seeing now -- parts of the single ommatidium -- are nanoscale
- Bugscope Teamyou can see they are may 300 nm in diameter
- Bugscope Teammaybe, I meant to say...
- Bugscope Teammeaning that speaking of UV light, those little bumps are about the same size as the wavelength of near UV light
- Bugscope Teamha you are at over 150,000x
- Bugscope Teamif we were closer to the sample we would have better resolution
- Bugscope Teamwhen we do Bugscope we operate at a long working distance so we can go to low mag when we need to
- Bugscope Teamthese are wing scales
- Bugscope Teamscales are actually modified setae as well
- TeacherPlease give Letitia the controls.
Bugscope Teamgot it!
- StudentIs the wing of the moth similiar to the butterfly?
- StudentDo they serve the same function as setae?
- 4:58 pm
- Guestare these 'particles' the 'dust' that falls of the wing, when you touch it?
Bugscope Teamyes they are; they supply color, reflective and refractive, and they are also thermoregulatory
- Guestare wing scales similar to feathers on a bird? protecting skin, providing warmth etc?
Bugscope Teamthe scales also protect butterflies and moths and silverfish (which also have them) by falling off when the insect runs into a web, thus in some cases allowing the insect to escape
- Guesthow do these structures help the moth?
- Guestso setae is a very common feature to many insects and there are many kinds of setae to tell insects different things about the condition of the environment...
Bugscope Teamyes it is pronounced see-teem and the singular form is 'seta.'
- Bugscope Teamoops see-tee no m
- Bugscope Teamscales that are not perforated are a feature of more primitive moths
- Guestso are these scales what we find on our fingers, when we catch a moth?
Bugscope Teamyes they make it feel slick, or silky; and to us they feel like fine powder
- 5:03 pm
- Bugscope Teamlet me go to the 'scope and see if I can make this look better...
- Bugscope Teamthat is a little better...
- GuestThanks.
- Guestwhay are moths attracted to lihjt?
- Guestlight?
- Bugscope Teamthe widths of the ridges and the shapes of the scales can produce what are called 'structural colors'
- TeacherDoes this shape help the moth fly?
Bugscope Teamit may help it hold onto the air; to an insect air feels thick, like water does to us
- TeacherWhat part of the moth is attracted to light (why are moths attracted to my porch light)?
- Guestsorry for my SP
Bugscope Teamhey no problem at all
- Guesti see, so structural colors form the spots/patterns/camoflage on moths.....
Bugscope Teamstructural colors are like what you see when you hold a black record in your hands and see colors coming from the grooves, if you remember what records are like
- Guestdoes anything about the shape of pollen explain why people are allergic to it?
- StudentDoes anything about the shape of pollen explain why people are allergic to it?
- Bugscope Teamother colors come from pigment
- Bugscope Teamnot sure that last chat message went through about structural colors...
- 5:08 pm
- StudentJust said that other colors come from pigment
- Studentnothing about structural colors
- Bugscope Teamyeah that didn't work
- Bugscope Teamour software has some goofy tricks to it, sorry
- Guestdo all pollen look alike, or share a common feature considering the many diff. types of plants?
Bugscope Teamthey are often quite different
- Guesthow many grains of pollen would be in a flower?
Bugscope Teamthousands and thousands
- TeacherPlease give Jacqueline the controls.
Bugscope TeamJacqueline is the supreme ruler.
- Bugscope Teamstructural colors are refractive colors like when you hold a record, which is normally black, and the grooves, when they are held in the right position in the light, show colors
- Bugscope Teamwing scales may have both pigment colors and structural colors
- Bugscope Teamthis is one of the claws of a cricket
- Bugscope Teamit has a lot of fungal hyphae on it -- it is rotting
- Guestdoes it use its claw like an animal carnivore does?
Bugscope Teamyes it does
- Guest*on* the end
- Guestis this one the end of each leg? or just front or back?
Bugscope Teamthere is one on the end of each leg, usually, of all six legs
- TeacherWe'll be ending in about 10 minutes. I'd like to ask a special favor before we sign off.
Bugscope Teamwhat would you like, Dr C?
- 5:13 pm
- Guestand what can it 'crush' with that claw?
Bugscope Teamha not too much -- it is more for grasping things, hooking onto them
- Bugscope Teamthe pad that is drooping down in the middle is called an 'arolium,' and it can inflate and deflate to help the cricket get a purchase on a branch or leaf
- Bugscope Teamor really, a crevie
- Bugscope Teama crevice
- Guestvery nice
- Bugscope Teamother insects have a pad called a pulvillus that has what are called tenent setae on it that help it stick to surfaces -- like glass
- Bugscope Teamtenent like 'tener' in Spanish
- TeacherWell, Scott might remember when my son, John, was in 6th grade. He used Bugscope for his science fair project which had to do with looking at teeth that were exposed to diet pop. Anyway, he's a student now at UI studying broadcast journalism, and he wanted me to ask you if he could do a video essay project on Bugscope.
- Bugscope Teamleafhopper!
- Bugscope Teamyay!
- 5:18 pm
- Bugscope TeamDr C!
- Bugscope Teamis everyone gone?
- Guestwe're here
- Bugscope Teamsomeone is driving
- StudentWe are in awe of the leaf hopper
- Guestwhat's the most interesting insect the bugscope has ever examined?
- Guestwe just want to know what part of the insect is this
- TeacherJacqueline is driving.
- Bugscope Teamthis is the ventral side of the bug, so I guess it is the front
- Bugscope Teamsorry the software is acting goofy I have to move from computer to computer here
- Bugscope Teamnow I am back but cannot see any chat
- 5:23 pm
- StudentThank you
- GuestThankkkkssss!
- GuestThanks for your time!
- Guestthanks!!!
- Guestthank you!!!!!
- Bugscope TeamThank You!
- GuestThank you!
- Guestthanks :)
- StudentThank you very much for your time. It was educational!!!
- Guestwe have to go now. Thank you for yor time and answers! Goodday!
- StudentThank you for this experience!
- Guesthey, scope, scott and sj.....thanks!
- Studentthank you
- Bugscope Teamha yeah I see Thank You!
- Guest Thank you very much for all your answers. It was very informative! I appreciate your knowledge and helpfulness.
- TeacherGuys, should I tell John to contact you?
- Bugscope Teamthank you all!
