Connected on 2011-11-07 13:50:00
from Travis, Texas, United States
- 12:49 pm
- Guestwhat are we looking at?
- Bugscope TeamI'm getting ready to put the sample in.
- Guestoh
- Bugscope TeamSo you can see me - part of me - for a minute.
- Guesti see
- Guestjust signed up for a session
Bugscope TeamCool!
- Bugscope Teamso now you see the inside of the sample chamber
- Bugscope Teamusing a CCD camera that is at the back of the chamber
- Guestwe have been here before and really like it
Bugscope Teamyeah totally cool
- Bugscope Team(this is Scot)
- Guesthey scot remembered your name from last year
- Bugscope TeamI am on the control computer as well as the 'scope itself today
- Bugscope Teamso now the sample chamber is pumping down
- Bugscope Teamthe large thing you can barely see to the left is the cephalothorax of a tarantula
- Guestjust checking out what ur doing
Bugscope Teamwe start with today's participant at 1:50, in just less than an hour
- Guestnot sure I can hang out much longer as I have a class right now
Bugscope Teamhey Thank You for checking in!
- Guestok
- 12:54 pm
- Bugscope Teamthe big deal now is getting the sample to pump down. if one of the critters is super juicy it could take a while
- Guestlooking forward to doing this again - you guys are awesome!
Bugscope TeamThank You! Our biggest problem at the moment is more people know about us, so we are booking well into next year now
- 1:06 pm
- Bugscope Teamwe are waiting for the vacuum to get just a bit better so we can start the electron beam
- Bugscope Teamthen we will make some adjustments to the microscope and start making presets for today's session
- Bugscope TeamHi Doris!
- Bugscope TeamWhere are you connecting from?
- Bugscope Teamjust a bit more and we will be able to turn the beam on
- GuestNYC
- Bugscope TeamCool!
- Bugscope TeamI was there a few weeks ago. Visited the protestors twice, since I was staying in the Financial District
- GuestI found your site last Thursday and will give a presentation to our Science faculty around 3pm
- GuestI will include this site since I think it is a great resource
- Bugscope Teamtoday?
- GuestI am working for the School of Education at CCNY
- GuestYes, today
- 1:11 pm
- Bugscope TeamI think we may still be on -- live -- at 3 your time. Or we will have just finished a session.
- GuestI am a supporting our faculty with technology and instructional resources
- GuestI was hoping you will be on. We will see.
- Bugscope TeamLet me know if you want to do a quick live connection with us during your talk.
- GuestThat would be great.
- Bugscope TeamI'm turning the beam on now and getting ready to find some presets for today's session in Texas. They will be on at 1:50, which is 2:50 your time. So we may not have much time to talk with you but should be up and running.
- Bugscope Teamthis is snakeskin
- GuestJust observing the session for few minutes will be great. I am in my office right now and will have to log in from the computer in the conference room again. I will be Doris2 there, just that you know who I am when I log in. Thank you!
- 1:16 pm
- Bugscope Teamsweet
- Bugscope Teamthis is Scot. 217 265 5071. sjrobin@illinois.edu
- Guest212 650 5795 dgrasserbauer@ccny.cuny.edu; Nice meeting you!
- Bugscope Teamnice to meet you! Thank you, Doris!
- 1:22 pm
- Bugscope TeamHello Mrs Morgan!
- Bugscope TeamWelcome back to Bugscope!
- 1:27 pm
- TeacherThis is Mr. Morgan. We just went through a quick presentation on electron microscopes with the kiddos. So they should be ready to go during the session.
Bugscope TeamGreat!
- Bugscope Teamwe are still finding and saving presets for your session
- Bugscope Teamhead of small moth
- Bugscope TeamI thought this was a parasitic wasp but it looks like it is a male ant.
- Bugscope Teamunfortunately it has no head
- TeacherAwesome. We had a session with ya'll in January 2011 with a different class. The kids loved it. Ya'll do an excellent job!
- Bugscope Teamwe will do our best today -- this is all stuff you sent
- 1:32 pm
- TeacherWhat did you do with the Trantula that was sent?
Bugscope Teamwe'll see it soon, as much of it as I could get on the stub
- 1:38 pm
- TeacherSorry about that, I dad brought it in to us Alive. Felt like I had to send it.
Bugscope Teamhey no problem. not sure how good it will look today. it is so big, and it was a bit tricky to position it
- 1:44 pm
- 1:50 pm
- TeacherI think we are ready when you are ready for us.
Bugscope Teamgreat!
- 1:55 pm
- Bugscope Teamwe are ready to go!
- TeacherOk.
- Bugscope Teamyou have control of the microscope and can change mag, change contrast/brightness, click on an object to center it...
- Bugscope Teamthis is the junebug!
- Bugscope Teamyou can see it's mouthparts, and its antennae, and its eyes
- Bugscope Teamthe things that look like little arms/legs are palps, which help the junebug taste its food and also manipulate it into its mouth
- Teacheris this his mouth?
Bugscope Teamyes it is!
- Bugscope Teamwith insect mouths it is often difficult to see exactly where it starts and ends
- Teacherwhat are the bumps
- Bugscope Teamthe big things that look like boxing gloves or submarine sandwiches are the lobes of its antennae
- Bugscope Teamthe antennae are lamellated, and they can fold open like a paper fan
- 2:01 pm
- Bugscope Teaminside those lamellae -- the layers of the antenna -- are chemsensors
- Teacherwhat are the hair like items used for?
Bugscope Teamthe hairs, which entomologists call 'setae,' are used by the insect to help sense its environment
- Bugscope Teaminsects do not have skin like we do. instead they have a shell, called an exoskeleton
- Bugscope Teaman exoskeleton -- a skeleton on the outside of the body rather than the inside -- is kind of like a coat of armor
- Bugscope Teamthe setae stick through that armor, and on the inside they are connected to nerves
- Bugscope Teamsome of the setae are mechanosensory, which means they can sense touch, and also wind
- Teacherwhat do june bugs eat?
Bugscope Teamthey eat the foliage -- the leaves, mostly -- of plants
- Bugscope Teamthey also like peaches, and grapes, and corn, so they are not welcome at farms
- 2:06 pm
- Bugscope Teamwhen they are larvae, they eat the roots of grass, so they might produce dead spots in your lawn
- Bugscope Teamthe tarantula was wet, so these are its setae, which are kind of gummed together like it was using a lot of hairspray
- Bugscope Teamspiders are super sensitive to vibration, and they use that sense often more than they use their eyes
- Bugscope Teamsetae can also be thermosensory (hot/cold), and they can be chemosensory, allowing them to taste the air
- Bugscope Teamsome spiders, like tarantulas, have what are called urticating hairs that they release. those hairs get into your nostrils and are very irritating
- Teacherhow many Setae do they normally have?
Bugscope Teamthey have thousands of setae -- they are quite hairy
- 2:11 pm
- Bugscope Teamwhen we see setae that resemble pine trees -- setae that have what are kind of like branches on all sides -- those are called plumose setae. we think that those are almost all mechanosensory. that is, they are sensitive to vibration and to touch
- Bugscope Teamlet us know if you have any trouble driving
- Bugscope Teamnow we see large and small setae
- Bugscope Teamsome of the smaller ones may be the urticating hairs
- TeacherWe are trying to go to the spider eyes
- Bugscope Teamurticaria is 'itching'
- Bugscope Teamthe spider had a kind of Mohawk hairdo
- Bugscope Teamthe eyes are really quite small considering how large this spider was
- Bugscope Teamthere are usually eight eyes
- Bugscope Teamwhen we use this kind of electron microscope we cannot see into things, so we cannot see into the eye
- Bugscope Teamwe can only see surfaces, but we can see them with very good resolution
- 2:16 pm
- Bugscope Teamflies and some other flying insects often have two bug compound eyes, with many facets, called ommatidia; they also have three simple eyes, like these, on the top of their heads
- Bugscope Teamthe simple eyes are called 'ocelli'
- Bugscope Teamthe simple eyes help a fly keep track of where the sun is, so it does not get lost
- TeacherWhy are there flakes of stuff here?
Bugscope Teamthe flakes are some kind of dried fluid on the surface of the head
- Bugscope Teamall spiders feed by injecting venom into their prey. the venom dissolves the inner organs of the prey, and the spider sucks it all up like a milkshake
- Bugscope Teamthis is a small moth
- Bugscope Teamsee its compound eye?
- Bugscope Teamit has lots of scales, which are what we feel when we stroke the wing of a moth or butterfly
- Bugscope Teamthe scales make the wing feel silky, and they are what seems to us to be fine powder coming off of the wings
- 2:21 pm
- Bugscope Teamscales have a number of purposes, and one is to fall off: when the moth flies into a spider web it may be able to leave some scales behind and get away
- Bugscope Teamnow we are looking at individual facets of the eye, called ommatidia
- Teacherwhat is the extra stuff on the eye?
Bugscope Teamit is dirt, often; sometimes we see mold spores, and sometimes we see bacteria
- Bugscope Teamhard to tell just what this is, isn't it?
- Teacherwhat do the smaller circles do?
- Bugscope Teamwe think they help collect the light that goes into the ommatidium, which is like a single lens
- Bugscope Teamnot all compound eyes have those very fine features
- Bugscope Teamwhen you see them, you are imaging something on the nanoscale
- Bugscope Teamthey are only a few hundred nanometers in diameter
- Bugscope Teama few hundred billionths of a meter
- Bugscope Teamsee the micron scale at the lower left?
- 2:26 pm
- Bugscope Teama micron, or micrometer, is 1000 nanometers, and it is one one thousandth of a millimeter
- Bugscope Teambacteria are usually about 2 micrometers long, so we can see them for sure when they are there
- Bugscope Teamthis is the base of the moth's antenna, which broke off
- Bugscope Teamone of the antennae is another preset
- Bugscope Teamyou can see the tiny scales
- Teacheris it hollow?
Bugscope Teamyes it is!
- Bugscope Teamthe antennae are used to pick up chemical scents in the air
- Bugscope Teamsome of those chemical scents are produced by other moths, and the male moth may want to follow them to find a female moth. they are like perfume'
- 2:31 pm
- TeacherWhat is the reason for the texture on the antenna?
Bugscope Teampart of the texture we see strengthens the antenna and makes it more rigid
- Teacheris that dirt on the claw?
Bugscope Teamyes it is! but it is not always the beetle's fault. some of that may have showed up after the beetle died
- Bugscope Teamwhen we look at the claw, and also the rest of the arm, we can often tell whether the beetle would be able to climb on a wall, or on glass, or walk on the ceiling
- Teacherwhat is the claw used for ?
Bugscope Teamthe claw is used kind of like we use our hands -- to grasp things and also to help it climb a bit
- Bugscope Teamthe setae we see now help the beetle tell whether or not something is touching it
- TeacherWhat are the hair like items here?
Bugscope Teamthey are mostly mechanosensors, like a cat's whiskers or a rat's whiskers
- Bugscope Teamsometimes the hairlike items are self sensory -- so the insect can tell whether its arm or leg is bent too far in one direction
- Bugscope Teamthat little flake looks like a tiny scale from a moth
- Bugscope Teamthis is something I don't know much about at all -- this is the snakeskin you sent!
- 2:37 pm
- Bugscope Teamso you remember those big antennae we saw on the junebug?
- Bugscope Teamthese are the same kind, and here we can see inside the layers -- the lamellae
- Bugscope Teamthose little round things are called sensilla, and they are chemosensory, I believe -- they help the beetle taste the air
- Bugscope Teamwhen we get really close the sensillae charge up with electrons
- Bugscope Teamthey are not well grounded
- Bugscope Teamsamples in a normal scanning electron microscope have to be conductive, and we coat them with a thin layer of gold-palladium so they do not charge up with electrons
- Bugscope Teamnow we can see a few palps, and we may see the tips of the mandibles, which are the jaws
- 2:42 pm
- Bugscope Teamsee how the palps have flattened tips?
- Bugscope Teamthose flattened tips have chemosensors in them that let the beetle pre-taste its food; they're like tiny tastebuds
- Teacherwhat are the palps?
Bugscope Teampalps are the four 'feelers' that are accessory mouthparts on many insects
- Bugscope Teamthey help taste food as well as move it toward the mouth
- Bugscope Teamoh wow!
- Bugscope Teamyou found something cool!
- Bugscope Teamwhat a surprise!
- TeacherIs this bacteria
- Bugscope Teamthey are too small to be bacteria
- Bugscope TeamI am sorry -- I don't know what they are!
- Bugscope TeamI think they are too small to be cocci, like streptococcus bacteria
- 2:47 pm
- Bugscope Teamthey are less than a micron in diameter
- Bugscope Teama mystery today
- Bugscope Teamthis is one of the lamellated antennae
- Bugscope Teamit is dirty too
- Bugscope Teamif we cleaned the insects we get we might also clean the mites off them that we see sometimes
- Bugscope Teamthose are the joints of the antenna
- Bugscope Teamthey look like ant exoskeleton
- Teacherwhat is the coolest thing you saw on our samples?
Bugscope TeamI liked the surprise, although I didn't recognize it. and I liked the placoid sensillae we saw inside the antenna lamellae
- TeacherOne of the kids has asked what is one of strangest bugs you have every seen on the scope?
Bugscope TeamI love weevils, which are really weird-looking. And whenever we get to see mites I am very excited.
- 2:52 pm
- Bugscope Teamonce I found a mite that was molting, and it looked like it was taking its shirt off
- Bugscope Teamit was slipping out of its old skin
- Bugscope Teambut I shouldn't call it 'skin' -- it was the cuticle, or shell
- Bugscope Teamwe often see things we do not recognize, and when I talk with the entomologists I ask them lots of questions
- Bugscope Teamthis is some kind of juju on the antenna joint -- a dried fluid of some sort
- TeacherThe kids say thank you! We greatly appreciate your time. It was another great session.
- Bugscope TeamThank You!
- Bugscope TeamThis is fun for us. And thank you for sending samples.
- TeacherFor the future, what types of bugs would you recommend we collect?
Bugscope Teamreally small bugs are often cool. ants, antlions (those are wildlooking), mosquitoes, leafhoppers
- Bugscope Teamticks, which are not insects, are kind of cool to look at
- Bugscope Teambut today was fun -- we got to see some cool stuff
- Bugscope Teamto me, roaches and crickets and grasshoppers are often not that interesting
- 2:57 pm
- Bugscope Teamthey are streamlined and don't have super cool features.
- TeacherI spend a lot of time in other labs and many engineers/techs wish they had your jobs. I get to look at Semiconductor samples, but this is some cool Stuff.
Bugscope Teamwe are really lucky to have all of these microscopes, and we get to see all kinds of samples: biological, materials, and biomaterials
- TeacherThank you for the ideas. We have another session scheduled later with a 5th grade class.
Bugscope TeamThank You!
- Bugscope TeamI hope the beetle is not making gang signs.
- TeacherCan I get images sent to me?
- TeacherI would like to print images from the session and give them to the kids.
- Bugscope Teamhttp://bugscope.beckman.illinois.edu/members/2011-093
- Bugscope Teamthis, below, is the link to today's session
- Bugscope Teamhttp://itg.beckman.illinois.edu/~sjrobin/Bugscope Images/
- 3:02 pm
- TeacherAre the images there immediately or in a few weeks?
Bugscope Teamthey are there now, with a transcipt of the session that has been anonymized.
- Bugscope Teamthe other link I sent is kind of messed up at the end but has some cool images
- Bugscope Teamhttp://itg.beckman.illinois.edu/~sjrobin/MaggiesFarm/
- Bugscope TeamThank You!
- GuestThank you! Was a great session.
Bugscope TeamThank you, Doris!
- TeacherOk. Sounds great. Have a great afternoon. Thank you, Trevor Morgan - FEI
Bugscope TeamThanks, Trevor!
- Bugscope TeamNoah are you still there?
- Bugscope TeamI have someone to help on the TEM, but please let me know if you have any questions.
- Bugscope TeamNoahsboat I just gave you control of the microscope. I will be back as soon as I get the TEM focused for someone.
