Connected on 2013-05-29 09:00:00
from Fairfield, Connecticut, United States
- 7:13 am
- Bugscope Teamsample is coating right now...
- 7:21 am
- Bugscope Teamand sample is in the 'scope, pumping down
- 7:29 am
- 7:35 am
- Bugscope Teamgood morning!
- TeacherHello- Will there be a sound component to this session? Do we type in questions only?
- Bugscope Teamno and yes
- TeacherGood morning to You!
- Bugscope Teamwe're working to finish the presets in the next 10 minutes or so
- 7:40 am
- Bugscope Teamthe presets will show up on the lefthand screen; you will be able to click on any of them to have the microscope drive to that position on the stage
- TeacherThe students will be here in about a half hour- we will also have guests logging in from Thailand & a school near where Silkworms are used for textile micro-enterprise.
Bugscope Teamsounds great!
- TeacherI hope that we sent enough insects!
- Bugscope TeamI think there are plenty of insects and arthropods
- Bugscope Teamwe don't know what everything is; kind of cool
- TeacherThe kids wrote a lot of questions. Do they all log in as guests to send these to you or should I type them in as we go?
- Bugscope Teamthe kids should be able to log in as Students, with no password
- 7:46 am
- Bugscope Teamsometimes it is necessary to refresh the browser in order to obtain the Student option at login
- TeacherThanks- Stepping out for a minute- staying logged on....
- Bugscope Teamsometimes the Student option does not show up and the students must be logged in as Guests, again with no password
- Bugscope Teamsuper cool
- 7:51 am
- TeacherI'm Bacccck
- Bugscope Teamhaha Awesome
- 7:56 am
- TeacherI have never seen these things before
- TeacherHow are you taking the actual photos?
- Bugscope Teamwe're not really taking images now
- Bugscope Teamjust the quick little preset images you see on the left
- Bugscope Teamwhen we collect images we slow the electron beam down and let it take its time scanning the specimen or area we want to see
- TeacherLater, what kind of camera, back, cmos, ccd, is necessary to capture images?
- TeacherWould you permit us to use some 'real' images ?
- Bugscope Teamit's a secondary electron detector (SED) that uses a scintillator tube
- Bugscope Teamit collects images as signal
- Bugscope Teamyou have a member page that has this transcript and images on it; we can also give you access to better images
- 8:01 am
- Bugscope Teamor it collects signal that becomes images
- TeacherStudents are arriving now.
- Bugscope Teamsounds great!
- 8:06 am
- Bugscope Team we are ready to roll
- GuestHello from Brandon and Warm Heart kids in Thailand!
- Bugscope Teamhello Brandon and Warm Heart Kids!
- Bugscope TeamHello to Thailand!
- Bugscope TeamSM has control of the microscope, presently
- Bugscope Teamplease let us know if Warm Heart would like control
- Bugscope Teamthis is the moth proboscis
- Bugscope Teamit'
- GuestGreat, it's fun to watch
- GuestIs this a fly?
- Bugscope Teams coiled up when it is not being used
- Bugscope Teamit is a moth, kind of hard to tell from this perspective
- 8:12 am
- TeacherOk- Danbury is ready! Welcome warmheart
- Bugscope Teammoths are usually difficult to image because they have thousands of scales and other setae covering their bodies
- Bugscope Teamscales do not coat well with the gold-palladium we use to make the specimens conductive
- TeacherMay we see the eye?
- Bugscope TeamSM you can click on any of the presets to make the 'scope drive to that position
- Bugscope Teamor you can click directly on the screen to get a feature to center
- Bugscope Teambecause SEM is sitting at the 'scope, he can tweak the focus etc. and kind of help out
- Bugscope Teamplease be sure to let us know when you have questions about any of this
- 8:17 am
- Bugscope Teamto the left we see some of the scales that, for one thing, protect the moth from getting caught in spider webs
- Bugscope Teamand now, to the left again, we see the coiled proboscis of the moth
- Bugscope Teamwhen the moth wants to extend its proboscis into a flower, it forces hemolymph into it and makes it shoot out like a party favor
- TeacherAre there different types of setae?
Bugscope Teamyes there are many different types of setae
- Bugscope Teamsome setae are thermosensory, some are chemosensory, some are mechanosensory
- Bugscope Teamsome setae are modified into scales
- Bugscope Teamsome are called tenent setae, and they are found on a pad called a pulvillus that helps the insect stick to a surface -- it's how a fly walks on the ceiling
- Bugscope TeamI clicked on the mosquito preset, but you are welcome to choose your own presets
- TeacherIf this is a female mosquito- which part do we want to avoid?
- 8:22 am
- TeacherIs this visible on the sample?
- Bugscope Teamthe mouth is to the upper left. It's called a proboscis and holds feeding tube and cutting parts
- Bugscope Teamas you might know, mosquitos are the most dangerous insect because they can carry so many diseases
- Bugscope Teamthe fascicle is inside this tube, which is covered with scales
- Bugscope Teamthe fascicle has (usually) four cutting components, a siphon tube, and another part we don't know the purpose of
- Bugscope Teamthis is a parasitic wasp
- Bugscope Teamwe did not look to see if its ovipositor was visible
- Bugscope Teamnow we can see its thorax and part of its abdomen
- Bugscope Teamall of the images we see are in black and white because we're using electrons to do the imaging
- Bugscope Teamyou can see that the wasp has four wings
- 8:27 am
- Bugscope Teamthe specimens are coated with gold-palladium and affixed to an aluminum stub with silver paint and doublestick carbon tape
- Bugscope Teamthis is the thorax of the assassin bug
- Bugscope Teamnow we see more of it
- Bugscope Teamyou can see its compound eyes
- TeacherWhy is it called an assassin bug?
Bugscope Teamit pokes its proboscis into other insects and sucks the juice out of them
- Bugscope TeamI think most assassin bugs also have venom that helps disable its prey and also dissolve their internal organs, much like a spider does
- TeacherDid you mount the bee we sent? It was large?
- Bugscope TeamTitleist
- 8:32 am
- Bugscope Teamsorry we didn't see any insects sent from you
- TeacherOh well. Tell us about the crazy treehoppers?
- Bugscope Teamwe looked up the Brazilian treehoppers
- Bugscope Teamthe weirdness about them -- there are many kinds -- seems often to be modifications of wings that are not utilized as wings
- Bugscope Teamthis is as close as we get -- a leafhopper
- Bugscope Teamleafhoppers are true bugs, meaning that they have piercing/sucking mouthparts, just as aphids, assassin bugs, ambush bugs, and stinkbugs do
- Bugscope Teamthe compound eye of the leafhopper is streamlined into its head and has a male mosquito antenna resting on it
- TeacherWas the lightning bug too large?
Bugscope Teamlighting bugs are also true bugs -- I'
- Bugscope Teamso Cate made us a pretty cool sample of her own from what we had in stock
- 8:37 am
- Bugscope Teamlightning bugs would fit nicely on the stub, which is 1.75 inches in diameter
- Guestwould love to have the Thai kids at some point if it's ok!
- Guestthis is fantastic
- Bugscope TeamWarm Heart you are of course welcome to run your own separate Bugscope session
- Guestoh ok, I'm sorry - I thought it was mentioned that conrols could be passed over for a moment
- Bugscope Teamalso, we can ocnfer control of the microscope to you now if you would like to drive
- GuestHappy to just watch too
- Bugscope Teamum 'confer'
- GuestOh, yes, please!
- Bugscope Teamthis is a super tiny super cool little pseudoscorpion
- Bugscope TeamWarm Heart you now have control of the microscope.
- TeacherThe students were wondering about jobs that would use the SEM and how you got involved. We saw the Career page. If warmheart wants to control the scope- great!
Bugscope Teamwe run a facility that has about 30 sophisticated microscopes in it, including the SEM, TEM, AFM, light and laser scanning confocal microscopes, micro and nano CT machines, etc., plus lots of sample prep instrumentation
- 8:42 am
- Bugscope Teamwe train grad students and postdoctoral scholars, mostly, to use the instruments to do perform their own research
- Teacherve scanned?
- Bugscope Teampseudoscorpions are pretty interesting when it comes to 'bugs' we have seen
- Bugscope Teamtoday we have someone coming in with some Archeae -- a new branch of ancient bacteria-like organisms
- TeacherHave you colorized the photos?
Bugscope Teamhaha not me, but some people do
- Bugscope Teamthis is the top of the pseudoscorpion's head, so you might be able to see its eyes
- Bugscope Teamthere is also a pseudoscorpion mounted on its back
- Bugscope Teamthese are so small I don't know how Cate even found them to put them on the stub
- TeacherHow do you decide what to look at? Are you specifically looking for certain distinctive features in certain specimens ?
Bugscope Teamwe want to find the coolest and often the creepiest parts
- Bugscope Teamthey are usually parts that have some function. like the claws or the eyes
- Bugscope Teamwe want to let Bugscope participants get an idea of how insects/arthropods do many of the same things we do but in a different way
- Bugscope Team5 microns is about 2.5 bacteria long
- 8:48 am
- Bugscope TeamWarm Heart you might want to try the brochosomes preset if you would like to see nanoparticles
- GuestVery cool. Kids are loving this.
- Bugscope Teamhere it appears that we're imaging something like dried salt particles, which in this case are amorphous
- GuestDon't want to hog it though, happy to send it back
- TeacherThank you so very much. Our questions will be better after we sleep on this (Ha). We have to go to another class now and cede any control and your time to WarmHeart! I will stay logged in as I go to my next class to make sure that the session goes as long as you want!.
- Bugscope Teambrochosomes :)
- Bugscope TeamThank you, SM!
- 8:53 am
- GuestThanks Susan!
- Bugscope TeamWarm Heart if you would like to drive for another 10 minutes or so, and also let us know when you have questions, we're happy to be here to help.
- GuestIs this still a scorpion?
- Bugscope Teamwe are on a leafhopper
- Bugscope Teamthey are the only insect that makes those little balls
- GuestVery cool
- GuestI think we've seen some here in Thailand
- GuestTime to put the kids to bed. Thank you so much!
- Bugscope Teamthanks for joining us today!
- 8:59 am
- Bugscope TeamThank You!
