Connected on 2012-03-08 08:15:00
from Volusia, Florida, United States
- 7:11 am
- Bugscope Teamsample is pumping down
- 7:27 am
- Bugscope Teamgood morning!
- Bugscope Teamwelcome to Bugscope!
- Bugscope Teamplease give us some time to set up presets for your session today
- 7:32 am
- Bugscope Teamcan you see the chat?
- Bugscope Teamplease let us know when you have questions
- 7:39 am
- 7:44 am
- StudentGood Morning!
- Bugscope Teamgood morning!
- Bugscope Teamsee the water strider?
- 7:49 am
- StudentThis is so cool! Will there be audio?
Bugscope Teamno we work with chat so that you have as much of a chance to speak as we do
- Bugscope Teamthis is the tip of the proboscis of the water strider
- Studentawesome!
- Bugscope Teamif we had audio it would be difficult for us to figure out who was going to speak, since we're in different places
- StudentOkay,am I able to control movement, yet? WIll you guide us?
Bugscope TeamI can give you control now, as 'Bugs.' Presently 'Science' has control.
- Bugscope Teamso yes please let me know who to give control to
- Bugscope Teamwherever you click on the image will be centered
- Bugscope Teamif you check out the lefthand screen by clicking on the left arrow, you will see what other presets you may select from
- TeacherI am testing everything before my class comes in. I have two stations set up, I am projecting it to the big screen from one.
Bugscope Teamthat sounds great!
- Bugscope Teamplease try selecting a preset from the lefthand screen
- Bugscope Team(click on the white arrow in the blue circle on the left)
- Bugscope Teamwhen you click on a preset, the microscope will drive to that place on the stub
- Bugscope Teamanytime you want Buggy or Bugs to have control, please let us know
- 7:54 am
- Bugscope Teamyou can also change the magnification, focus, and change the contrast or brightness
- StudentSo, I need to click a set form the left side, correct?
Bugscope Teamif you want to ask the 'scope to drive to another sample, click on the arrow to the left so you can see the lefthand screen
- Teacheropps.. I was at bugs station...
- Bugscope Teamthen you will see the choices we have made for you on this stub, today
- Bugscope Teamha like that! totally cool
- Teacherok
- Bugscope Teamsee the aphid's proboscis?
- Bugscope Teamtwo flies talking
- Bugscope Teamthis is a male housefly
- Teacheramazing!
- Bugscope Teamsee the compound eyes?
- 7:59 am
- Bugscope Teamyay
- Teacheryes indeddy!
- Teacherindeed!
- Bugscope Teamyou can click on the image itself to get a feature to center
- Bugscope Teamsweet
- Bugscope TeamI still have a mosquito I can find for you, and some cool looking salt crystals
- Bugscope Teamyou can click the plus sign at the top of the screen on the left to bring the magnification up
- Teacherthat'd be great...class is due in soon...tehyare going to be fascinated!
- Bugscope TeamESEM is at the microscope controls, Scot is at another computer in the same room, and sj is in his office.
- TeacherSo , tell me what I am looking at here, please.
- Bugscope Teamnow we can see the antennae, in the middle
- TeacherWOW!
- Bugscope Teamthe pad like part is how the fly senses wind direction and wind speed
- Bugscope Teambecause I am sitting at the microscope I can tweak things occasionally
- 8:05 am
- Teacherwhat part of the fly is this?
Bugscope Teamthis is a mosquito
- Bugscope Teamso it is a fly as well: mosca = fly, and -ito = small
- Teacherok...what part of skeeter?
Bugscope Teamthis is the head; the antennae are busted off
- Bugscope Teamthe eyes make up most of the head
- Bugscope Teamthe donut like things are the bases of the antennae, which are missing
- Bugscope Teamcoming out of the screen toward us is the proboscis, with which the females probe and then bite us
- Bugscope TeamI am sorry the tip is dirty, and we cannot see any of the stylets within, if this is a female
- Teacherwe're going to switch to a new insect, ok?
Bugscope Teamabsolutely
- 8:11 am
- Bugscope Teamwe can tell male from female mosquitoes by their antennae. in males they are very ornate, and in females they are plain
- Bugscope Teamthese are scales from the wing of a butterfly
- Teacherwhat type?
- Bugscope Teamscales are what we feel -- what seems like fine powder when we rub a butterfly's wing
- Bugscope Teamthis one was dark, blue, and orange and black; maybe a painted lady; in this case all I had were the wings
- Bugscope Teamthe scales provide color to the wings, and color is formed both by the shapes and the fine ridges and by pigment that is in those small cavities we see in the scales
- Bugscope Teamscales are also helpful to butterflies, moths, mosquitoes, and silverfish because they fall off easily. that means that if the insect flies into a spider web it may leave the scales stuck to the web and slip out.
- Bugscope Teamthis is a dermestid beetle caterpillar -- a larval beetle
- Bugscope Teamit is covered with aphids which were collected at the same time
- Bugscope Teamyou can see the aphid at the top in another preset, or you can change the mag to see it from here
- 8:16 am
- Bugscope Teamaphids are plant pests; they stick their proboscises into leaves and drink the fluids from the leaves; they can kill plants
- Bugscope Teamladybugs are one insect that helps keep the aphid population down
- Bugscope Teamladybugs love to eat aphids
- Bugscope Teamgood job driving!
- Bugscope Teamthe aphid's proboscis is more than 200 micrometers long
- Teacherwe just chatted about ladybugs, too
Bugscope Teamcool!
- Bugscope Teama micrometer is also called a micron, and it is one one thousandth of a millimeter
- Bugscope Teamso 200 micrometers is one fifth of a millimeter
- Bugscope Teamthis is a water strider
- Bugscope Teamit eats other insects that fall or live in/on the water
- Bugscope Teamyou can see its compound eyes, and in the middle you can see that it has a sturdy proboscis that it pokes into other bugs so that it can drink their bodily fluids
- Teachercool!
- Teacherwhat part is this?
Bugscope Teamthis is the thorax and the head of the water strider; you can see its first set of legs as well
- Bugscope Teamnow you can see its antennae
- 8:21 am
- Bugscope Teamit is covered with fungus, and the fungus has a bacterial biofilm on it
- Teacheryes we see it!
- Bugscope Teamfungus (mold) and bacteria help break things down when they die so they turn back into organic material like dirt again
- Bugscope Teamthe background is carbon doublestick tape
- Teacherwe're switching again..
- Bugscope Teamwhen we use the scanning electron microscope (SEM) to collect images, we use electrons rather than light, and electrons are very small, smaller than atoms, so we do not see in color
- Bugscope Teamthe images we see come to us as signal
- Bugscope Teamthis is the mouth of the male housefly
- Bugscope Teammany flies, like this one, have sponging mouthparts
- Bugscope Teamthey spit up on their food to dissolve the sugars in it, and then they sponge it up
- Bugscope Teamthe lower, bent part is the proboscis -- the sponging mouth
- Bugscope Teamthe two spiny things in the opening are palps, which help taste and also manipulate food toward the mouth
- 8:26 am
- Teacheryuck!
Bugscope Teamhaha yeah they are gross
- Teacherwhat are the hairy things?
Bugscope Teaminsects do not have skin like we do, with nerve endings, and they do not have noses; insects have an exoskeleton, which is like a shell, or like a suit of armor. so to be able to sense their environment they have lots of setae, which is what the hairs are often called
- Bugscope Teamsetae can be mechanosensory -- touch sensitive like cat or rat whiskers
- Teacherthx
- Bugscope Teamsetae can also be chemosensory -- helping insects smell their food and also scents from the environment, and also pheromones -- like perfume from other insects
- Bugscope Teamsetae may also be thermosensory -- giving the insect the ability to sense hot and cold
- Teachermold spores..tellus more!
- Bugscope Teamthe small pill-like things we see -- the capsule shapes -- are bacteria
- 8:31 am
- Bugscope Teamwhen mold takes over, it has branch-like elements called hyphae, and it also forms spores, which it releases. the mold spores are carried in air currents to other places, where the mold can form from them when they land
- Bugscope Teambacteria come in three basic shapes, and we see the capsule-like shapes -- the rods, or bacilli -- most often
- Bugscope Teamthey also come in more rounded shapes, and are called cocci; and the really bad ones come in spiral shapes
- Bugscope Teambacilli -- the rod-shaped bacteria -- can form biofilms, which are a slime coating in which they live
- Teacherwhat colors are bacteria?
Bugscope Teamthey seem to be mostly browns and yellows
- Bugscope Teamwhen bacteria form biofilms, they protect them from being washed off of fruits and vegetables, for example; it makes them more dangerous
- TeacherJulia wants to know what the inside would look like?
Bugscope Teambacteria have thick walls, and inside they have what are called organelles that help them digest nutrients and also grow and divide; they can communicate via chemicals, but it is not like the way we talk
- 8:37 am
- TeacherHow long would it take for bacteria to form on my dirty dishes? asks Tavion!
Bugscope Teamif the dirty dishes are wet and do not have detergent on them, it can happen in a matter of hours and then get worse
- Bugscope Teamthat is why it is not good to leave food out in the air for long
- Bugscope Teambacteria also form spores that move through the air
- Bugscope Teamthat is why you want to reheat your food when you get it out of the fridge
- Bugscope Teamheat can kill bacteria...
- Bugscope Teamthe compound eyes of female flies are often far apart, whereas those of males are close together
- TeacherArielle wants to know if these are alive?
Bugscope TeamThey are dead. Someone caught them and froze them for us.
- Bugscope Teamthe freezing killed them, and then we let them dry out
- Teacherfreeze-dried!
- Teacherhow are they "talking"?
Bugscope TeamI thought that it looked like the one on the right was whispering to the one on the left.
- Teacher:-)..me too!
- Bugscope Teamnormally they communicate through chemicals they release, and also through movement -- through visual cues
- 8:43 am
- Bugscope Teamthe compound eyes have thousands of tiny facets called ommatidia thay work like indivdual lenses
- Bugscope Teamlet's go up close...
- TeacherDesmond wants to know what is that thing between his eyes?
Bugscope Teamthe two things that look like pads are part of the antennae, and the branched things are part of the antennae called aristate antennae
- Bugscope Teamyou can see that the fly also has 'microsetae' on its head, almost like fur
- Bugscope Teamthese are some of the ommatidia
- TeacherJennifer needs to know how the flies react to "talking" to each other.
Bugscope Teamif they are male and female, it may be that they determine they are the same species and can mate, so the female can lay eggs that are fertilized, and the eggs will hatch into little maggots
- 8:48 am
- TeacherHaleigh, on the little spots on the eyes, do they have multiple eyes???
Bugscope Teamflies and other flying insects have compound eyes, which have multiple lenses or facets like we see now; they also have three more eyes, called ocelli, or simple eyes, that register the position of light, such as where the sun is, so they don't get lost
- TeacherTammy wants to know how many eyes are in the compound eyes?
Bugscope Teamthere are several thousand ommatidia, often, in just one compound eye. some wasps can have as many as 17,000 facets in one eye
- TeacherCheyenne wants to know why flies seem to always rub their "hands" together ?
Bugscope Teamsometimes they are cleaning the surface of their hands; we can look at some of the hands
- Bugscope Teamso this is for Cheyenne, so she can see what the hands look like when they are clean
- Teacherdo they eat with THOSE hands?
Bugscope Teamthey eat with their mouthparts
- Bugscope Teamtheir claws help them grasp things, and this part of the hand is called the pulvillus
- Teacherok...then!
Bugscope TeamI didn't mean to be rude -- they usually do not use their hands to move food toward their mouths
- Teacher:-)
- 8:54 am
- Bugscope Teamthe tiny setae we see are kind of like suction cups, and they are why flies and some other insects can walk on glass and on the ceiling
- Teacherwhy do some flies have red eyes/ blue eyes, asks Chase!
Bugscope Teamthe colors of the eyes help them identify each other; also the patterns on their heads and on their thoraces -- the 'trunk' part of the body
- Bugscope Teamthese are the sticky setae that help the fly cling to the ceiling
- TeacherAlexa wants to know how many egs they hatch at a time?
Bugscope Teamit depends, of course, but probably an average would be a hundred or so
- Bugscope Teamfemales are said to be able to lay 500 eggs in batches of 75 to 150
- TeacherWhat type of crystals are these?
Bugscope TeamThey are some kind of chemical that formed very quickly and thus did not form nice even crystals
- 8:59 am
- Bugscope Teamthis is also for Cheyenne, because the crystals are on a fly's pulvillus -- the pad with the sticky setae on it; this is why they rub their hands together -- to get rid of things like this
- Bugscope Teamnow you can see where we are -- this is on another fly's claws
- Bugscope Teamwe saw those fine suction-cup like setae earlier, and they were clean; these are mucked up with those round crystalline objects
- TeacherThank you so much! My class has to leave now! They loved it! You are gettign a rousing round of applause!
- Bugscope TeamSweet!
- Bugscope TeamThank You for connecting with us today!
- Bugscope Teamhttp://bugscope.beckman.illinois.edu/members/2011-115
- Bugscope Teamthis is your member page, with a transcript on it
- TeacherSO awesome!
- Bugscope Teamyay!
- Bugscope Teamwe are lucky to have this kind of equipment and thrilled to be able to share ti
- Bugscope Teamoops 'it'
- Bugscope Teamgood job driving today, and very good questions
- Bugscope Teambye!