Connected on 2012-03-02 12:00:00
from Middlesex, New Jersey, United States
- 11:24 am
- Teacherhello
- 11:31 am
- Bugscope TeamHello!
- Bugscope TeamWelcome to Bugscope!
- Bugscope Teamsorry -- we were working on the presets and not paying attention to chat
- 11:36 am
- Bugscope Teamour session starts at 1 your time, correct?
- 11:41 am
- Teacheryes 1
- 11:46 am
- Bugscope Teamcool
- Bugscope Teamyou have control of the microscope right now
- Bugscope Teamperhaps obviously
- Bugscope Teamthis is a pillbug that was in my laundry area
- Bugscope Teamso it has lots of clothing fibers on it...
- Bugscope Teamplease let us know if you have any questions about anything now
- Teacherthe kids are coming in at 1 so we will probably be able to start with the microscope by 1:15
- Teachercan we do the fly first?
- 11:52 am
- Bugscope Teamsure
- Teacherwhat part of the fly are we looking at?
- Bugscope Teamyou can see its compound eyes, its palps, its antennae...
- Bugscope Teamthis is the head
- Bugscope Teamthe lighter areas are the compound eyes
- Bugscope Teamit's difficult to see the mouth, which I believe is extended toward us and obscured by the forelimbs
- Bugscope Teamyou have the ability to drive, and you can also select from any of the presets on the lefthand screen
- 11:57 am
- Bugscope Teamare the students going to be able to log in on other computers today?
- Teacherok thanks
Bugscope Teamtry out anything you
- Bugscope Team'd like
- Bugscope Teamthis is cool
- Bugscope Teamthe antennae are often loose and charge up with electrons; these look great
- Teacherno we will only have one computer logged in
Bugscope Teamno problem at all of course
- Bugscope Teamyou can see the individual facets of the compound eye, called ommatidia
- Bugscope Teamthe tall things in the mouth area that look like Buddhas in a cave are palps
- Bugscope Teamthe sponging mouthparts are extendable, and a bit obscured here
- 12:03 pm
- Bugscope Teamyou are driving a $600,000 scanning electron microscope from your classroom
- 12:13 pm
- Teacherok we are ready..they would like to ask you a few questions about yourselves
- Bugscope Teamok we are ready!
- Bugscope Teamgreat!
- Bugscope TeamWelcome to Bugscope!
- Bugscope TeamCate made the sample and set everything up today. She's in her office. I am in the room with the microscope.
- Bugscope Teamwe work in a lab where we have a variety of microscopes to image different kinds of samples. We also train students to use them for their own studies
- Teacherwhat kind of scientist are you?
Bugscope TeamI have a degree in English and Biology, so you could say I am a biologist. I am also an electron microscopist and have been doing this kind of work since 1983.
- Teacherdo you have a title? biotechnologist?
Bugscope TeamI used to be called a Senior Research Engineer, which was cool, I thought. But now I just the Manager of the Microscopy Suite.
- Bugscope Teamoops 'now I am'...
- 12:18 pm
- Bugscope TeamCate does the prep herself most of the time.
- Teachercan you describe how you prepare the samples?
Bugscope TeamI put the samples on an aluminum disk that has carbon tape on it to help ground any charges. Sometimes I also use a little silver paint to act as a glue. Then we coat the whole thing with a thin layer of metal to make it conductive
- Bugscope Teamthe bubbly looking background with the cracks is the carbon tape
- Teachercan you describe what we are viewing?
Bugscope Teamthis is the head of a green bottle fly, from the ventral side (from underneath). You can see its compound eyes on either side of the head, and you can see its palps, which it uses to help taste prospective food.
- Teacheris the bug dead?
Bugscope Teamyes all the insects are dead and dry because they have to go inside a vacuum of the microscope
- Bugscope Teamyou can also see its antennae, which have a sort of pad portion and also a branched (aristate) portion
- 12:24 pm
- Teacherwhat are their purpose?
Bugscope Teamthe hairs help the insect to sense what is going on around it like cat whiskers. Some have the job of just sensing when it is touching something or getting close to something. Others can feel changes in temperature or smell/taste
- Teacherwhat are the hairs made of?
Bugscope TeamI believe they are made of chitin, same as the exoskeleton
- Teacherwhat is the life span of a normal fly?
Bugscope Teamthey can live for upwards of a month
- Teacherdo the hairs grow back?
Bugscope Teamusually they do not grow back, because the insect does not live that long
- Bugscope Teamif the insect goes through molts, it may produce new hairs
- Teacherwhat is the material around the hair?
- 12:30 pm
- Bugscope Teamthe hairs are often called 'setae,' and they are chemosensory, thermosensory, and mechanosensory
- Bugscope Teamthe longer living insects that have multiple adult molts can grow back hairs or even limbs
- Teacherwhat is the material on the left?
Bugscope Teamjuju!
- Teacherwhat is juju?
- Bugscope Teamit is some kind of debris that we don't recognize
- Bugscope Teamsometimes it is the remnants of a film that has dried
- Teacherwhat is the maximum we can magnify?
Bugscope Teamwith this microscope we can go as high as 200,000x and still see distinct things, but with insects we don't normally go above 40,000x because there just isn't much to see any higher than that
- 12:35 pm
- Teacherwhat is the structure in the middle?
Bugscope Teamthat is a sensory seta
- Bugscope Teamalso called a 'hair,' but because insects are not mammals they do not have hair, technically
- Bugscope Teamthis is from Cate's house
- Bugscope Teamit was trying to overwinter in my house, or it got in on a nice day
- Bugscope Teamthis is a wasp, and we are looking at the glossa, which is what the tongue is called
- Teacherwhat is this?
Bugscope Teamthe thing in the middle is the 'tongue' and the small parts that look like little legs are palps that help taste or move around food
- 12:40 pm
- Teacherwhat special things does the tongue do?
Bugscope Teamit laps up the nectar or other juices it eats
- Teacherwhat is this?
Bugscope Teamthis is the stinger!
- Teacherwhat is the skin underneath it?
- 12:46 pm
- Teacherwhat is the string?
Bugscope Teameither a piece of lint (actual string) or maybe even a plant fiber
- Teacherdoes a wasp lose its stinger?
Bugscope Teamno it can sting repeatedly
- Bugscope Teama honeybee loses its stinger when it stings a mammal
- Teacherwhat does the spider use these for?
Bugscope Teamthis is how this kind of spider eats; it is not really a spider, however
- Bugscope Teamthis is a harvestman, which is an arachnid
- Teacherwhat is it?
Bugscope Teamit is an arachnid, but it is more closely related to scorpions and mites
- Teacherwhat are these structures? what are they used for?
- 12:51 pm
- Bugscope Teamthose are claws, which are used much like we use our hands
- Bugscope Teamthe tiny setae help the wasp sense when it is touching something
- Bugscope Teamsome insects, like some butterflies, can smell with the setae on their feet
- Bugscope Teamthey land on something and scratch it, and they can taste the scent that arises
- Bugscope Teamthe central portion of the claw often has a pad called a pulvillus that has tenent setae on it that help it stick to surfaces
- Bugscope Teamthere is a pair of hinged jaws on the upperhalf of the mouth
- 12:56 pm
- Teacherhow old is this species?
Bugscope TeamI'm sorry I don't know how old they are -- I'm sure they go back past the dinosaurs
- Bugscope Teamof course
- Teacheralright we are going to sign off...thank you very much!
- Bugscope Teamthanks for using bugscope with us this afternoon!
- 1:07 pm
- Bugscope Teamyou can view images and chat from today by going to your member page
- Bugscope Teamhttp://bugscope.beckman.uiuc.edu/members/2011-097