Connected on 2012-11-01 12:30:00
from Hamilton, Ohio, United States
- 11:50 am
- Bugscope Teamhaha this is not Cate
- 11:56 am
- 12:01 pm
- Bugscope TeamAnnie!
- TeacherHi guys! We are going to have lecture and we will be with you in about 30 minutes.
- Bugscope TeamCate is sj right now and I am me.
- Bugscope Teamthis is the tsetse fly
- Bugscope TeamI guess not -- its beak is too short
- 12:06 pm
- Bugscope TeamHi Kevin!
- 12:12 pm
- 12:18 pm
- 12:31 pm
- Bugscope TeamI'm not Cate anymore.
- Guesthello
- 12:37 pm
- TeacherUmmm.....how do they join as students?
Bugscope Teamthey should be able to select Student, but for some reason sometimes it does not show up as an option
- Bugscope Teamwe are happy to have them as Guests -- sorry that does not seem to be working today
- Teacherso, should they be guests?
Bugscope Teamyes please
- Bugscope Teamwe can give them control either way
- Teacherawesome
- Bugscope TeamDr R you sent some critters we did not recognize.
- Bugscope Teamexotic bugs
- Teacherhaha, what do you expect
Bugscope Teamwe expected you to play certain tricks on us like that
- TeacherCan you give control to Chris Z?
Bugscope Teamhe has control
- Bugscope Teamyes Scot got descriptive with some of the unknown insects
- Bugscope TeamFab
- 12:42 pm
- Bugscope Teamthis is cool -- a nice clean proboscis on one of the moths
- Bugscope Teambusted off palp there
- Guestwhats the hole in the left?
Bugscope Teamthat is where one of the palpi was
- Bugscope Teamyou can see scales on and above the compound eye to the right
- Bugscope Teamscales are modified setae
- Guestfrom this micrograph can we determine how the proboscis "zips"? Where are the points of mechanical interaction?
Bugscope Teamprob'ly right in the middle
- Bugscope Teamit is difficult to see just where, but that is good because if it was a loose connection there wouldn't be much suction
- Guestso how much did this microscope cost? can i get one from ebay?
Bugscope Teamthis one cost around $600,000 more than 10 years ago. You can get a much cheaper tabletop SEM (they are a lot smaller) but they don't get as good resolution
- GuestWhat is the maximum magnification of the SEM?
Bugscope Teamthis will go to about a million x but we can take meaningful publishable images only at a max of about 200,000x and sometimes 250,000x
- Bugscope Teamif you got one of these on eBay it would still cost a lot to run it and also service it -- it has its own filtered electricity, nitrogen, water, AC, etc.
- Guestawwwwww
- GuestWhat enables the two halves of the proboscis to "stick" together?
Bugscope TeamI am not positive they all zip.
- 12:47 pm
- TeacherCan you give control to Joe?
Bugscope Teamjoe has control
- GuestWhat coating was used to prepare the specimens and how do apply it?
Bugscope Teamwe use a sputter coater to put about 20 nm of gold-palladium on the sample, and that is very thick compared to a normal research sample
- GuestFollowing Nick's question, if the proboscis is not stuck together like a zipper, are the two halves mechanically held together?
Bugscope TeamI was thinking it was a coiled tube that formed that way rather than zipping like a mosquito proboscis with the fascicle inside
- Bugscope Teamyou can see that the tip of the stinger is charging up with electrons
- Guestwhy is the stinger split in half?
Bugscope Teamwhen it goes into you it can cut side by side like an electric steak knife
- Guestawesome
- Bugscope Teamalso, stingers sometimes have something to deliver, like an egg; they are modified ovipositors
- GuestIs it possible to see hamuli linking together on this specimen?
Bugscope Teami dont think we were able to see them
- Bugscope Teamthe sputter coater pulls a vacuum; then we introduce argon gas; then we apply current to the gas and it glows as it becomes a plasma; permanent magnets attract the plasma to a thin foil of gold palladium; the gold-palladium atoms erode and shower the sample with Au/Pd atoms
- 12:52 pm
- Bugscope Teamyou can go and check the wings; usually we watch for hamuli when we are checking a sample out for the first time
- Guestare those teeth on the upper right?
Bugscope Teamthey don't have teeth, but they often have ridged mandibles. Here we are on the end of the abdomen though.
- Guestwhy is the opening so big compared to the stinger?
Bugscope Teamlike it has more to do with the wasp being dead and dried a bit
Bugscope Teamlike, the opening at the tip of the abdomen is warped a little from drying
- Bugscope Teamsee how the mandibles open from side to side like a gate? and you can also see lots of palpi
- GuestWhat kind of surface features can we observe on the antennae?
Bugscope Teamyou can see setae, short setae-like elements, and placoid sensillae
- Guestdo you have to wear special protective gear to work with the machines?
Bugscope Teamnot really, but with some pieces of equipment like the glow-discharge machine you have to be careful what you touch when so you don't get shocked
Bugscope Teammost we wear is gloves to keep the oils on our fingers from contaminating some samples or vacuum of the machines
Bugscope Teamgood point
- GuestCan we see a close up of the chemoreceptors on the antenne when we're done looking at the mouth?
Bugscope Teamthat is up to your driver Joe
- 12:57 pm
- Bugscope Teamwe had made a preset of the antenna as well
- GuestWhat are the little spots behind the specimen?
Bugscope Teamthat would be the carbon tape all the insects are sitting on
- Bugscope Teamnow you can see the long placoid sensillae, which I have been thinking may be more mechanoreceptors for proprioception
- Bugscope Teamwe are so close and the sample is charging enough that the image is distorting, sorry...
- Guestcan we look at some insect penises(penii?)
Bugscope Teamat the tip of the cranefly's abdomen you can see some genital features
- GuestWhat are all of the flakes? Are they sensory structures also?
Bugscope Teami'm not sure what the flakes are. They are some sort of debris that are not part of the insect
- Teacherhaitong can drive now...smarty pants
Bugscope Teamhaitong has control
- Bugscope Teamoften when we work with entomologists and they are interested in the aedeagus, for example, they dissect it out so they can see it; often the genitalia are inside
- Guest*brachosome
- Bugscope Teamthis is the tip of the cranefly abdomen
- 1:03 pm
- Bugscope Teamthose are kind of like shark claspers
- Bugscope Teamprobably help it attach to its mate in the air
- Bugscope Teamlike dragonfly mating
- Bugscope Teamyou can also see a scale there
- Bugscope Teamit looks so much like a spider's chelicerae and fangs
- GuestWhat is the function of a brachosomes?
Bugscope Teamthe leafhoppers anoint themselves with them and it helps repell water. They also cover their eggs with them as well
- Teachercan you give kevin control?
Bugscope Teamgot it!
- GuestRegarding insect eyes: are the ommatidia typically the same size between different groups of insects, or is there a lot of variability there?
Bugscope TeamI would say there is a large variation
Bugscope Teamthere is a variation within species, even, and perhaps between tasks, like workers and drones
- 1:08 pm
- GuestSo what are the bumps on the ommatidia?
Bugscope Teamwe think that they help channel light; some insects do not have them; some insects see UV and some do not
- Guestwhat are the little flakes from?
Bugscope Teamsome of the flakes are scales, and some are debris from the critical point dryer
- Guestwhats a critical point dryer?
Bugscope Teamwe use the critical point dryer to process samples in ethanol through to liquid CO2, which can be removed from tissue above the critical point for CO2 and thus does not cause a destructive phase change and damage the tissue
- GuestWhat are these structures we are looking at here?
Bugscope Teamthese are special setae that enable the insect to walk on vertical surfaces
- Bugscope Teamtenent setae. They act like velcro or suction cups
- TeacherNICK!
- Teacherignore nick
- GuestScot, can you describe the last lamp you bought?
Bugscope Teamhaha I dunno maybe an Artemide?
- GuestDr. Ray mentioned you don't like beer.
Bugscope TeamI have been drinking Shiners, like one or two, or Boulevard, sometimes, but often I get a headache right away
- GuestAre these tenent setae unique to dipterans or are they found in other orders as well?
Bugscope Teamother orders as well
- 1:13 pm
- GuestHow did you end up operating the microscope?
- Guesthows are you doing today scot?
Bugscope Teamhaha Ask Cate I have been totally radical.
- Guesthow are you cate?
- GuestWhat about these structures enables them to adhere to surfaces?
- Guestor octopus?
- GuestAre the tenent setae on insects similar to the mechanism that helps certain reptilians stick to walls.
- GuestDo these function the same way geckos feet do?
Bugscope Teamwhen we talked with the gecko people, they were jerks; the setae they described are about a 10th or maybe a hundredth the diameter; so supposedly they use van der Waal's forces to stick to things. that is a matter of opinion
- TeacherCan you give control to Zach?
Bugscope Teamzach has control
- Guestamong the small setae, theres a gaint sphere structure, what is that?
Bugscope Teamoh sorry we missed it, looks like, at this mag
- Bugscope Teamhuh what happened?
- Bugscope Teammaybe the gecko people are monitoring our communications
- Bugscope Teamanterior tentorial pits on either side of the compound eyes
- 1:19 pm
- Guesthow are you cate?
Bugscope Teamim good. Thanks for not leaving me out :)
- Guestis anyone dressed for halloween?
- GuestMe too. Its a lovely floor lamp with a rice paper shade.
- GuestWhats the last kind of lamp you bought Cate?
Bugscope Teamhaha i think the last lamp I bought was from walmart
- GuestWhy are so far underground?
Bugscope Teamless vibration, no danger of getting sunlight
- Guesti got a nice 50 dollar lamp that my roommate didnt want anymore
- Bugscope TeamI like mites, which are not insects, and I like weevils and earwigs, and also leafhoppers
- GuestWhy can't we see the bumps? Does this fly just not have them?
Bugscope Teamthey are covered with juju except in a few places, like here
- GuestCate and Scot, what are your favourite insects and why?
Bugscope Teammaybe some kind of wasp or bee. They can have pollen on them and their faces and antennae kind of look like a rabbit. Oh and sometimes you can see some rad looking stinger
- GuestHow did all of you meet?
- GuestAre there any samples of mites we can look at?
Bugscope Teamsorry we did not find any today, yet...
- GuestWhat on Earth is this?
Bugscope Teampollen grain
- GuestWhat is juju?
Bugscope Teamit's what we call dried fluids, usually, that we do not recognize
Bugscope Teamsometimes we will also call dirt or dust particles juju as well. Pretty much anything that isn't native to that insect
- 1:24 pm
- Guestcool thanks!
- Guestwhen i think of the midwest, i think of corn. are you guys close to any cornfields?
Bugscope Teamyes
Bugscope Teamha! We are surrounded
- Bugscope TeamThe university even has its own special cornfields
- TeacherCan you give control to Timfeld
Bugscope Teamtimfeld has control
- Bugscope Teamit has a face like a borer
- Bugscope TeamCate was dressed like a Tim Burton character yesterday.
- GuestDo the engineering students use GPS technology to make really cool corn mazes?
Bugscope Teamnot sure anyone makes corn mazes around here, not this year with the drought
- Bugscope Teamthis is cool
- GuestWhich character?
Bugscope TeamI think a generic one.
- Bugscope Teami wasnt dressed as anyone specifically. Just wearing festive clothing like black and white striped tights, skull and crossbone shoes and an orange halloween shirt
- Bugscope Teamyes Dr R what is the critter that looks like a boxer, or a borer?
- GuestWhat exactly are these setae on the spurs? And spurs are used for what, exactly?
- TeacherI think it is a bark beetles or something like that
- Teacherbeetle
- GuestAside from stunning visuals what kind of information do you collect from SEM micrographs? How do you use it?
Bugscope Teampeople look at samples they have fabricated, bacteria; we looked at some human epithelial breast cells in Matrigel a few weeks ago; also graphene, boron nitride...
- 1:29 pm
- Guestwhat are the long tenticles behind the spur?
Bugscope Teamsome of the bristle-like things at leg joints are sensory, like for proprioception
- TeacherHAITONG!
- Guestare there any bumpin parties this weekend?
Bugscope TeamI think neither Cate nor I get out that much.
- Bugscope Teamthis has got to be some kind of cerambycid
- GuestThat's okay, none of us science students get out much either.
Bugscope Teamwe're like what you become after you're a science student
- GuestScot, that's kind of scary.
Bugscope Teamwe get to see the very coolest cutting edge stuff. yesterday I got some awesome electron diffraction images of boron nitride that actually proved we were really seeing it
- Bugscope Teami'm an electron microscopist. I usually assist or train users to use the microscopes or other related machines
- GuestYeah, I guess that makes up for it.
Bugscope Teamwe are really lucky to have such cool high-end equipment to work with
- 1:34 pm
- Bugscope TeamI started out as a student worker that helped with verious things around the lab, then when I graduated I got more responsibilities and a full time job
- Guestcate, are you seeing anyone?
Bugscope TeamI'm married sorry
- GuestThat's true, it's some cool sci-fi stuff, that's for sure. How did you end up working with it?
Bugscope Teamone of the groups here does the best ultra high res ultra high vacuum STM in the world, and we are lucky to get to help them sometimes
- GuestDr. Ray isn't convinced this is a cerambycid because of how long at antennal segment is. Also it's got a wonky prothorax. Any ideas?
Bugscope Teamit's the professional thorax that makes it look like a cerambycid
Bugscope Teamshe is the total pro; we are just, like, microscopists
- GuestIs STM scanning tunneling microscopy? do you also do AFM?
Bugscope Teamyes definitely
Bugscope Teamyes to both
- Bugscope Teamwe have microCT, nanoCT, FCS, FLIM, TIRF, multiphoton, Raman, etc.
- 1:39 pm
- GuestWhat is this? Help.
Bugscope Teamoh sorry -- it is one of the tarsi of the leafhopper
- Bugscope Teamlike an arolium on a grasshopper
- Bugscope Teamsort of
- Bugscope Teami think it's more of a bend
- Guestwhat does this hole lead to?
Bugscope Teamit's like a catcher's mitt -- it doesn't lead anywhere
- GuestWhat is this tentacle-like structure?
Bugscope Teamprobably a mechanosensory seta
Bugscope Teamso the leafhopper knows when something is touching its 'palm'
- Guestwhat about the scales to the side?
Bugscope Teamthat is the surface of the chitin/cuticle
- TeacherCan you give power to Meaghan?
Bugscope Teammeaghan has control
- Bugscope TeamYay! Leafhoppers I really like.
- Bugscope Teamso cool
- Bugscope Teamit has a blunt proboscis but if you look up close you can see the actual stylet
- Bugscope Teamcompound eyes streamlined into the head
- Bugscope Teamlittle aristate antennae
- Bugscope Teamfrom France
- 1:44 pm
- GuestHas the bugscope ever found any new species of ectoparasites on insects?
Bugscope Teamha Yeah we think so.
Bugscope Teamwe've seen mites with little eyes, without eyes, with what are clearly polarized eyes, but very likely they have all been well characterized.
- Bugscope Teamthere's a book about mites available but it is like $170
- Bugscope Teamdo you think I can justify that to the finance people?
- 1:50 pm
- Guestdo the halteres sense by air current or gravity or etc.?
Bugscope TeamI think they are self sensing, in a way; it could be the Johnston's organ that helps the fly sense that kind of motion, in flight.
Bugscope Teamtotally speculating
- Bugscope Teamthis is where a bunch of setae are missing
- Teachercan you give power to kevin, again?
Bugscope TeamKevin is the supreme ruler now
- Bugscope Teamdeus ex machina
- Bugscope TeamI've seen them at the zoo before- a whole fishtank full of them
- 1:55 pm
- Guesthave you seen dermestedes eating dead bugs before?
Bugscope Teamwe have found tiny insects living among dead bugs and obviously feeding on them
- Bugscope Teamso when we look at brochosomes, which are often 250 to 400 nm in diameter
Bugscope Teamwe are in the nano realm
- Bugscope Teamthe way we use the microscope for Bugscope, we are operating at a long working distance and actually sacrificing resolution for the ability to see whole insects at low mag
- Bugscope Teamso we are capable of obtaining better resolution; usually is it is not appreciable but with brochosomes it is.
- GuestIs this a spiracle that we're looking at?
Bugscope Teamlooks like it
- Guestare you interested in brochosomes scot?
Bugscope Teamyes because it is the idea that they are so small and also self-assembled, in a way
- TeacherOK--I think we are pretty much finished here...our session time is up.
Bugscope Teamawww
- Teacher:(
- Bugscope Teamthanks for the great and amusing questions
- TeacherThank you two, thanks for your good sense of humor!
Bugscope TeamHey Thank You, Annie! And Thank You, Everyone!
- Bugscope Teamthis was so much fun
- TeacherI miss this!
Bugscope Teamyeah we miss having you on as well. I wanted to call all of the insects lobsters, like lobster1, lobster2...
- 2:00 pm
- Teacher:)
- Guestthank you scot and cate
Bugscope TeamThank You, Haitong!
- Guestthis was a lot of fun! thank you very much!
Bugscope TeamThank you, Nick!
- Guestthank u
Bugscope TeamThank You, Brooke!
- GuestThank you Cate and Scot!
Bugscope TeamThanks, Chris!
- GuestThanks Scot and Cate
Bugscope TeamThank you, Kevin!
- TeacherOK guys, over and out on my end. Thanks again!
- Bugscope TeamBye, Annie!
