Connected on 2012-11-14 08:30:00
from Norfolk, Massachusetts, United States
- 7:18 am
- Bugscope Teamsample is being sputter coated
- 7:29 am
- Bugscope Teamsample is pumping down
- Bugscope Teamthese insects may be very juicy
- 7:35 am
- Bugscope Teamso it could take a little while for the 'scope to pump down
- Bugscope Teamwe are indeed having a problem with the samples and may have to make a different set
- 7:46 am
- Bugscope Teamwe have made a separate sample with a worker bee, a moth, some pollen, and a few other insects
- Bugscope Teamwe're going to coat that sample and at the same time watch the vacuum on the SEM to see if it might make it in time for this morning's session
- 7:53 am
- Bugscope TeamCoating backup sample.
- Bugscope Team2.2, 2.1
- Bugscope Team2.0
- Bugscope Teamwe are going for a stable 1.3
- Bugscope Team1.3 x 10-4 mBar
- 7:58 am
- Bugscope Team2.2, 2.5. 2.4. 1.9
- Bugscope Team2.7, 2.3, 1.8
- Bugscope Teamwe can see bursts of outgassing from the specimens
- Bugscope Team1.7
- Bugscope Teambecause it is close, we will let it go another 10 to 12 minutes
- Bugscope Team1.6
- Bugscope Team...
- Bugscope Team...
- Bugscope Team...
- Bugscope Team...
- Bugscope Team1.5
- Bugscope Team..
- Bugscope Team..
- 8:04 am
- Bugscope Team1.4/1.5
- Bugscope Team1.4
- Bugscope Team1.3...
- Bugscope Teamwe will need the vacuum to stay at a 1.3 x 10-4 or better in order to keep running
- Bugscope Teamit's very close
- 8:14 am
- TeacherHi
Bugscope TeamHello!
- Bugscope TeamMrs Happnie we are going to be working on the presets as quickly as possible.
- Bugscope Teamwe had a lot of trouble with juicy insects this morning
- TeacherI don't see a student choice for the login at the chat station. Should I just login then in as guests? Will they be able to type questions?
- TeacherThe class is not here yet- Maddy
- Bugscope Teamyes please log them in as Guests. they will be able to type questions and can use whatever names they choose
- Bugscope Teamsometimes the Student option does not come up. It may come up on other machines...
- TeacherIt did come up on the others and we are all logged in
Bugscope Teamgood deal!
- 8:19 am
- TeacherGreat presets!
Bugscope Teamthank you,. so far so good. we had a long wait for the vacuum to stabilize
- 8:25 am
- TeacherChat is different- it's threaded now
Bugscope Teamit's gone through a few changes in nearly 14 years
- 8:30 am
- TeacherWe are ready are you?
- Bugscope Teamwe are ready to roll
- Bugscope Teamplease let us know when you have questions
- 8:36 am
- TeacherTrying to get the worker honey bee preset but having trouble
Bugscope TeamI will drive there.
- Teacherthanks
- Bugscope Teamsometimes the controls get bogged down
- Bugscope Teamwe rebooted microscope control
- Bugscope Teamthis is the compoound eye
- Bugscope Teaminteresting that it has few setae on it
- Bugscope Teamthe facets of the eye are called ommatidia
- Bugscope Teamthis eye may have been brushed after the bee died
- GuestWhat are the little dots
Bugscope Teamthe roughly hexagonal things are the ommatidia; the small white dots are the bases of setae that are now gone
- Studentwhat are the spiky things on the eye
Bugscope Teamthose are setae, or insect hairs. Sometimes they help tell flying insects the direction of the wind currents to help them fly better
- Bugscope Teamnow we can see a little better
- Bugscope Teammost of the setae on this part of the eye are broken off
- 8:41 am
- Bugscope Teamsome of those places between the facets are where setae used to be but they got sheared off, probably after it died
- Bugscope Teambees are the only insect known to have branched setae, but not on the eye
- GuestHow long is a bees legs
Bugscope Teamthey are a little less than a centimeter, maybe 7 mm or so
Bugscope Teamwe can go look if you want to drive there
- Studenthow many lenses does the eye have
Bugscope Teamthousands per eye
- StudentHow far can a bee see?
Bugscope TeamI don't think they can see well-focussed images for very far, but I am not sure. They do not see all the colors we see the same way we do, either
- Bugscope Teama large wasp and some moths can have as many as 17,000 ommatidia per compound eye
- Bugscope Teambees are related to wasps and ants
- StudentHow well can a bee see
- Studentwhat colors do they see
Bugscope Teamthey can't see reds, but they can see UV
- 8:46 am
- Bugscope Teamas Cate said, bees are said to be red-blind, and they see some colors, like yellow and green and orange as the same color; they also see blues as about the same color
- Studentwhat sense does the bee use if it can't see red
Bugscope Teamit apparently sees red the same as black, just like we cannot tell colors as well when it is dark
- StudentDo bees have a nose to smell?
Bugscope Teamthey do not have noses like we do; they have spiracles to breathe, which are like noses; but to smell they use thousands of chemosensory setae, many of which are on the antennae
- GuestWhat are we looking at
Bugscope Teamin the upper part of the screen are the jaws and then curving around from there is the bee's tongue. There also is some wing from an insect, maybe a bee, to the bottom of the screen
- Bugscope Teamspiracles are large pores, usually on either side of a body segment, that let air into the tracheae to circulate inside the body cavity
- Bugscope Teamthe images from the microscope you are driving today are black and white because we are using electrons instead of light to collect them
- StudentHow many bees live in one hive?
- StudentHow do they use their tongue?
Bugscope Teamthey use their tongues to lap up nectar, kind of like a cat lapping milk, and the proboscis is said to collect the liquid nectar through capillary action
- 8:51 am
- Bugscope Teamthe proboscis is like a straw
- Bugscope Teamthe bumble bee's mouthparts are easier to see today, on another preset
- Studentwhy are bees black and yellow?
Bugscope Teamthey are warning colors to other animals, like people. There are some bees that look like a wasp with black and white stripes so they will be mistaken for a wasp and be left alone.
- StudentHow big is the queen compared to the drones?
Bugscope TeamI have never seen one, but they can be several centimeters long
- Bugscope Teama queen bee can be twice the size of a worker bee; it depends on the species
- Bugscope Teamqueen bees are also said to have nonbarbed stingers, meaning that the stinger does not get caught in, for example, mammalian (like us) skin
- Bugscope Teamso queen bees can sting repeatedly
- Studentwhy does a bee sting hurt?
Bugscope Teamit's what is in their venom that hurts. Some stinging insects hurt more than others.
- Guesthow long is a bee stinger
Bugscope Teamwe can see that this broken stinger is about 150 micrometers, or 0.15 millimeters long. stingers vary in length
- 8:57 am
- Studentwhy does a bee die when it stings someone?
Bugscope Teamhoneybees have a barbed stinger that tends to get stuck in a mammal's skin. When the bee tries to pull away, the stinger and venom sac stays put. This creates an open wound on the bee and it eventually bleeds out and dies
- StudentDose the stinger grow
Bugscope Teamno but often it does not show completely; some of it is still inside the bee
- Studentwhy isn't the end of the stinger not that pointy in the microscope?
Bugscope Teamits broken; we didn't know that when we made the sample
- Guesthow long is a bees lifespan
Bugscope Teamqueens can live for 2-5 years. Drones can live for up to 50 days.
Bugscope Teamand workers, the females, live for 1-3 months
- Studenthow do they produce venom?
Bugscope Teamthere is a venom gland just inside, and I believe it is produced there
- Studentwhat is the circle thing on the bee's stinger
Bugscope Teamthe things that look like circles are dried fluid
- StudentWhy do bees sting?
Bugscope Teammost bees are non-aggressive. They only sting when they or their hive are threatened. The africanized honeybee is aggressive like a wasp and will sting if you are near them
- StudentHow much venom is in a stinger?
Bugscope TeamI think just a few microliters, the size of a small drop of water to us
- Bugscope Teamyou can see both branched and unbranched setae here at the tip of the abdomen
- Bugscope Teamdrones do not have stingers because they are males
- 9:02 am
- Bugscope Teamthe stinger is a modified ovipositor, also used for laying eggs in some insects
- Studentis that pollen on the leg
- Studentwhat are we looking at ?
Bugscope Teamwe are looking at the pollen basket that the bee has on its leg
- Studentcan a baby bee sting some one?
Bugscope TeamI think so. Bees can sting other insects without losing their stinger and dying. It is mammals that have thick skin that holds the barbs of the stinger in.
- Bugscope Teamthis is lots and lots of pollen, collected by the bumble bee
- StudentHow much pollen can a bee hold?
Bugscope Teamit depends of course on the size of the bee; pollen is also captured on the hairs -- the setae
- Studenthow big is a pollen basket?
Bugscope Teamit is a few millimeters long, perhaps 2 or 3
- 9:07 am
- Guestwhat does the bee do with the pollen
Bugscope Teamit is used as food for them
- StudentHow big is a pollen grain?
Bugscope Teamabout 20-30 microns
- StudentWh is some pollen grans biger than other
Bugscope Teamthe bee uses its proboscis to brush the pollen with nectar so that it will stick better; what we are seeing is pollen with bee saliva/nectar on it
- Studenthow does a bee use the pollen too make honey
Bugscope Teamit doesn't use pollen to make honey, except maybe as a raw source of nutrients that it has digested; it uses mostly nectar
- Studentwhat is this a picture of?
Bugscope Teamthis is a live image of the head of a moth
- Bugscope Teamthe moth's compound eye is the large round thing, and the coiled thing is its proboscis, which is rolled up when it flies
- StudentWhat is the picture of?
- Studentwhat are the spiky things?
Bugscope Teamthose are hamuli. bees, wasps, and flying ants use them to hook together their hind- and forewings to make them one big pair of wings
- Studentwho is queen elizabeth?
Bugscope Teamthere have been several, but the one we were thinking of was the Queen of England during the time of Shakespeare. Her clothing looked like the moth's scales and setae around its head.
- 9:12 am
- Studentwhere is this located?
Bugscope Teamnow we are looking at hamuli, little hooks that hold the fore and hindwings together
Bugscope Teamas Cate said...
- Bugscope Teamwhen bees and wasps fly, they hook their wings together
- Studentwhat is the cuved line on the right?
- Studentwhat is the straight line?
Bugscope Teamthat is the edge of the forewing
- Studentwhat are they made of
Bugscope Teamthey are made of chitin
- StudentAre the wings fragile
Bugscope Teamtheir tough in the insect world.
- Studentwhat is chitin
- Studentwhats chitin
Bugscope Teamit's similar to what our nails are made of
- Guesthow big are the wings
Bugscope Teamthey are usually about a centimeter
- Studentdo the wings have a texture
Bugscope Teamthe wings often have tiny setae on them called microsetae that help hold onto the air and also keep the wings from sticking together when they get wet
- Bugscope Teamthis is cool
- Studentwhat is the things in the middle of the swirl
- Studenthow long is the proboscis?
Bugscope Teamthese can be more than a centimeter long, allowing the moth to reach deep into a flower to collect nectar
- 9:18 am
- Bugscope Teamthere is a hawk moth with a proboscis that is nearly 6 inches long. This one is much smaller
- Studentwhat are the spiky things on the proboscis
Bugscope Teamthey function kind of like the strings on a mop, to help hold nectar and also pollen
- Studentwhat is the proboscis?
Bugscope Teamit's a tube that it extends into flowers to drink the nectar
- Studentwhat is it made of
Bugscope Teamalmost all of the harder surfaces on an insect or similar arthropod are made of chitin, which as Cate said is similar to what our fingernails are made of. A shrimp shell is made of chitin.
- Studentwhat are the indents on the proboscis
Bugscope Teamthe small indentations are what help the proboscis bend, and they also provide rigidity to it -- it is a tube
- TeacherIs there an antennae to look at
Bugscope Teamwe can see
- Bugscope Teamoops guess what this is
- Bugscope Teammoth antennae are very fragile
- Bugscope Teamthose of males are often ornate, like those of male mosquitoes, whereas female antennae are more plainlooking
- Guestwhat does the proboscis feel like
Bugscope Teamto us it would feel soft and perhaps tickle
- 9:23 am
- Studentis that a ear
Bugscope Teammost insects do not have ears, really; the praying mantis has a single large one on its thorax, I think. but this is the base of one of the antennae
- Bugscope Teamthis is where the antenna broke off
- Bugscope Teambecause sound is a form of vibration, insects can 'hear' using some of the fine setae -- the hairs -- they are often covered with
- Bugscope Teamthis is so awesome
- Guestwhat are the hairs on the antenna
Bugscope Teamthose are setae- insect hairs. Scales are modified setae as well
- Studenthow do bees communicate
Bugscope Teamthey use chemical signals that they use their antennae to understand
- StudentHow many bees live on earth?
Bugscope Teamthere are said to be more than 20,000 different species of bees in the world, so there are billions and perhaps trillions of bees in existence at one time
- Guesthow many different kinds bees are there
Bugscope Teamthere are 20,000 known bee species
- Studentwhat is it
Bugscope Teamthis is the bumble bee head, and right now we see the antenna and beneath it one of the mandibles
- Studenthow long is a antennae
Bugscope Teamlooks like it is about 7 millimeters long
- StudentIf a antenna falls of will it regrow?
Bugscope Teamno. once insects have wings they are adults, and they do not molt or grow or regenerate lost parts
- 9:28 am
- Guestwhat is the most common bee
- Guestwhat is that sharp thing
Bugscope Teamthe thing to the left, pointing down, covers the glossa; normally there is one on either side
Bugscope Teamthey are called 'stipes'
- Studentwhat is a glossa
Bugscope Teamthat is what we think of as the tongue, or more the tip of the tongue
- StudentWhat is the most common bee?
Bugscope Teamsweat bees are the most common. But the best known species is the africanized honey bee
- Studenthow many eggs can a queen bee lay
Bugscope Teamabout 2000 eggs per day
- Studentis a queen bee stinger worse than a worker bee
- Studentcan a bee things?
Bugscope Teamcan it think? not quite the same way we do; it seems programmed to do different things in different situations
- Guestwhat is the difference of a honeybee and a bumblebee
Bugscope Teambumblebees are often bigger and their stinger lacks the barbs that a honeybee has. It also doesn't make honey
- 9:33 am
- Studentcan a bee taste things?
Bugscope Teamyes they can taste with the tiny setae we see; some of the setae are chemoreceptors, which can sense smell, and smell is the same as taste, in a way
- Bugscope Teaminsects are covered with setae to allow them to sense the world around them
- Bugscope Teambecause insects have an exoskeleton (whereas we have an endoskeleton), they do not have skin with nerve endings in it
- Guestwhat does a bumblebee eat
Bugscope Teamthey eat both pollen and nectar; when they feed their young, they spit up a mixture of pollen and nectar for them
- Bugscope Teamif you had an exoskeleton, it would be like wearing a suit or armor, and you would not be able to feel things touching the surface of the armor
- Studentthank you so much we have to go now
- StudentThank you so much we have to go know
- Studentthank you we learned so much!
- Bugscope Teambecause insects essentially have suits of armor -- their exoskeletons -- they need to project setae through that armor to be able to sense what it around them
- Bugscope TeamThank You, Everyone!
- Guestthank you so much we have to go now
Bugscope TeamThank You!
- Bugscope Teamthanks for all your great questions and using 'beescope' with us today
Bugscope Teamhaha Yeah!
- 9:39 am
- Bugscope TeamThank You!
- Bugscope TeamBye!
- TeacherThanks I'll see you tomorrow-Maddy