Connected on 2013-12-03 13:00:00
from Chatham, Georgia, United States
- 7:50 am
- Bugscope Teamgood morning!
- TeacherHello!
- Bugscope TeamI'm just starting to do setup -- here I'm adjusting the electron beam on an area of the sample away from the specimens
- TeacherNo problem. I am setting up the computer stations. My tech support was unable to come to school today! :-)
- Bugscope TeamWe have eight different fruitfly specimens; there is a note from Cate, who made the sample yesterday, that the No. 1 fruitfly does not have a head.
- TeacherThat's fine. I think it will be a good lesson either way to show them.
- 7:56 am
- Bugscope Teamwhat we plan to do is make at least 8 presets
- TeacherPerfect
- Bugscope Teamof course we prefer to show more of each fly, so should really have like 24 presets
- Bugscope Teamwe'll make them so that each lets you know which number the fly is, so you can choose the one you want to see
- TeacherSounds great!
- 8:01 am
- 8:07 am
- 8:13 am
- 8:19 am
- 8:24 am
- 8:34 am
- Bugscope Teamhi Tammy!
- Bugscope TeamMs. Childers we have made 24 presets -- three for each fruitfly
- Bugscope TeamYou have control of the microscope now if you would like to drive.
- Bugscope Teamwhen you click on a preset, the microscope drives to thatm position on the stage
- Bugscope Teamsometimes the sample will have moved a bit, for example if the preset was at a higher mag and the specimen dried further in the vacuum and shifted
- 8:40 am
- Bugscope Teamyou can see at the top of the central screen which preset is currently in position
- Bugscope Teamyou can also change the magnification, focus, contrast and brightness
- Bugscope Teamand by clicking at a point on the viewing screen, you can get the microscope to move to that point, to center where you clicked
- TeacherThanks Scot! I am still setting up with the students. We will probably start in 15 minutes.
Bugscope Teamsuper cool
- TeacherOne question: How do I allow the students to take control?
Bugscope Teamjust ask us to give that station control
Bugscope Teamwe'll transfer control from you to that station
- Bugscope TeamCate will be here soon, and it is possible Joseph will be here to answer questions as well
- Bugscope Teamwe welcome any questions at all; that is what we're here for
- TeacherAwesome!
- 8:49 am
- Bugscope Teamthis is fruitfly 1, and we were sorry to find that its head was missing. sometimes that happens
- 8:54 am
- TeacherThat is no problem! Students are coming in for the session. We should start fairly soon.
- Bugscope Teamgreat!
- Bugscope Teamif there are any ground rules we need to know, please go ahead and fill us in
- Bugscope Teamoften if we do not hear from our participants, we will keep a running commentary going on what is on the screen, and we encourage questions
- 9:05 am
- TeacherScot, please give station 1 control
- Bugscope Teamgood morning!
- Bugscope Teamstation 1 has control of the 'scope
- Bugscope Teamcool! you've centered on the fly's head
- Bugscope Teamnow you're moving down the body
- Bugscope Teamnote that you can change the magnification too
- StudentWhat are those circles and pebble shaped things
Bugscope Teamthose are the doublestick carbon tab the insects are mounted upon
- Bugscope Teamthe circles are bubbles in the tape
- Bugscope Teaminsects have a head, a thorax (to which all of the limbs are attached), an abdomen (where we are now), six legs, and two antennae
- Studentdoes it have hair
Bugscope Teamyes they have lots of hairs, which we are supposed to call setae (see-tee) or spines or bristles..
- TeacherGive control to station 2 :-)
Bugscope Teamgot i
Bugscope Teamgot it!
- Bugscope Teamthe setae are super helpful to the insects because they let them connect with their surroundings
- 9:11 am
- Bugscope Teamsetae can be mechanosensory -- touch or wind sensitive
- Bugscope Teamchemosensory -- so the insect can smell, from the air or via touching something
- Bugscope Teamthermosensory -- hot or cold
- Bugscope Teamalso, the setae can be used for proprioception, which is self-sensing -- so the insect knows when it is hyperextending one of its legs, for example
- StudentCan the fruit fly regenerate?
Bugscope Teamno. they don't live long enough anyway
- Bugscope Teamhere we see a globe that is the head of the haltere, also we see to limbs with claws at the tips, and we see at least one pore that is a spiracle, through which insects breathe
- Bugscope Teamtypically insects and spiders that live a lot longer, like tarantulas, can molt and have back legs or other body parts that they lost
- Studentwhat is the round structure in the middle?
Bugscope Teamthat is the head of the haltere, which swings with a motion opposite that of the wings, to balance the fly in flight
- Bugscope Teamthe haltere is on a short staff, although we cannot see that now
- TeacherGive control to station 3 :-)
Bugscope Teamsupreme rulers!
- Studentawesome!!!
- Bugscope Teamyou can see here that the abdomen, lower left, is shriveled up, a bit
- Bugscope Teamand you can see that the fly has tiny claws, hardly visible just now
- Bugscope Teamthis is the compound eye, up close
- 9:16 am
- Bugscope Teamthe round things are individual lenses, called, ommatidia
- StudentExcuse us, we were wondering what the gender of the fruit fly is?
Bugscope Teamwe do not always know the gender of an insect from an external view
Bugscope Teamthat is, often they look alike unless you dissect them
Bugscope Teamso I am sorry we do not know the gender of any of these flies
- TeacherGive control to station 4 please :-)
- StudentOkay, Thanks Mr. Scot :)
- Studentwhat are the tiny objects on its eye?
Bugscope Teamthere is some dirt, and the spines are there to help the fly sense wind speed and direction
- Bugscope Teamsee the pad portions of the antennae?
- Bugscope Teamthis is cool
- Bugscope Teamyou can see the sponging mouthparts quite well
- Bugscope Teammany flies feed by releasing digestive juices onto their prospective food and then sopping it up
- Studentwhat is this
Bugscope Teamthis is the sponging mouthpart of the fruit fly
- StudentHow do the flies eat?
Bugscope Teamthey sponge up dissolved sugars and other components of their food
- 9:21 am
- StudentWhy do flies spit in their hands and rub them together?
Bugscope TeamI think it is because they are trying to be very clean!
Bugscope Teamthey need to keep their claws and the pulvillus, which we can see now, clean
- StudentWhat is that
Bugscope Teamthis is the claw on one of its legs
- Studenthow do they eat food ? do they chew?
Bugscope Teamthese flies do not chew -- they suck up their meals as partially digested fluids
- Bugscope Teamthe little spindly things are setae that help the fly stick to surfaces
- TeacherGive station 5 control please :-)
Bugscope Teamstation 5 is now in charge of driving
- Bugscope Teamthe hole at the bottom, middle, here is a spiracle
- StudentWhen you say theses flies don't chew, are there flies that do chew?
Bugscope Teamyes and there are flies that slash your skin to get the blood to flow
- Bugscope Teamthere are flies that have piercing mouthparts like horseflies
- StudentDo the flies have a tongue
Bugscope Teamthe sponging mouthpart you saw is close to a tongue
- Bugscope Teamwhen we use the electron microscope to see very small things, we have to work in a vacuum, and we use electrons rather than light to collect images
- StudentWhat is the life expectancy of these flies?
Bugscope Teammaybe 6 weeks
- StudentWhy do flies die with there legs folded?
Bugscope Teama lot of insects do this. the tendons that control the legs dry up after they die, and as they dry, they tighten, causing the legs to fold in
- 9:26 am
- TeacherGive station 6 control, please
Bugscope Teamthey have control
- StudentHow do they reproduce
Bugscope Teamthey mate kind of like birds and other animals, and the females produce and lay fertilized eggs that hatch into larvae
- StudentWhat are the flies wings made out of?
Bugscope Teamthey are made of chitin- the same as the rest of their exoskeleton. It is just a thinner layer
- StudentHow many eyes are in the compound eye
Bugscope Teamlooks like there are 200 to 300 per eye
- StudentWhat makes that annoying noise??
Bugscope Teamprobably the wings; to the insects, however, the noises let them know if they're females or males
- StudentIs that the mouth?
Bugscope Teamyes!
- StudentHow big do they grow up to
- StudentDo bugs get cold in the winter?
- Bugscope Teamthe pads on the lower portion of the antennae have components inside them that sense wing vibrations
- TeacherGive station 7 control, please :-)
Bugscope Teamthey have control
- Bugscope Teamthese are called hypertrophied mechanoreceptors
- 9:31 am
- Bugscope Teamthey help the fly sense its wing motion and then work in opposition to that motion
- StudentHow big do they grow up to
Bugscope Teamthey are only a few millimeters long as adults; thankfully they do not continue to grow, larger and larger
- StudentDo bugs get cold in the winter?
Bugscope Teamyes they do! it slows them down and will kill them if they freeze for too long
- StudentWhat is that
Bugscope Teamthat is one of the claws at the end of one of the six legs
Bugscope Teamthe frilly part we see has what are called tenent setae on it that are sticky and help the fly cling to surfaces
- Bugscope Teamsee that the tenent setae are kind of flat at the tips?
- TeacherGive station 8 control, :-)
Bugscope Teamgot it!
- Bugscope Teamyou can see the haltere, near the body
- Bugscope Teamthe rounded thing
- Bugscope Teamflies are called Diptera, which is Di- meaning 'two' and ptera, meaning 'wing'
- TeacherScot, some of our students would like to ask you and your group personal questions?
Bugscope Teamsure. fire away
- 9:36 am
- Bugscope Teamthis is cool -- you can see the ocelli
- Bugscope Teamthe head is dried a bit and caved in
- StudentWhere did you all graduate from? And when?
Bugscope TeamI graduated with a bachelors in science from the University of Illinois in 2007. I majored in Physics
Bugscope TeamI graduated from the U of Kansas with a double major in English and Biology, in 1983.
- Bugscope Teamsee the haltere, to the right, and the fine setae on the wings?
- Studenthow long have you been researching for ?
Bugscope TeamI started as an undergraduate in 1982.
- StudentHow long did it take to graduate
Bugscope Teamhaha it took me forever! because I dropped out for a while. when I came back I was more serious and oriented toward doing a good job and finishing
- Bugscope Teamas long as we are working here, we are always dealing with research projects
- Bugscope Teamso I really like art as well
- Bugscope Teamand literature...
- Studentthank you !
Bugscope TeamThank You!
- Bugscope Teamthis is super fun for us
- TeacherScott, this group has to go to their next class. :-)
Bugscope TeamThank you, Everyone!
- Bugscope Teambye!
- StudentBye, Thank You! :)
Bugscope TeamBye!
- 9:41 am
- StudentIt was a lot of fun!
Bugscope Teamyay!
- Bugscope TeamThank you so much, Everyone!
- StudentBye ^.^
Bugscope TeamBye!
- StudentThank you from Ashia & Prentiss , we enjoyed it!
Bugscope TeamAwesome! Thank you!
- StudentThank you Cate and Scot! This was cool! Goodbye :)\
Bugscope TeamSweet!
- StudentTHANK YOU VERY VERY VERY MUCH, GOODBYE
Bugscope TeamBye!
- Studentthanks so much for answering our questions
Bugscope Teamreallly fun for us
- Bugscope TeamMs Childers we will see you later!
- 9:46 am
- Teacherthe students LOVED it! Thanks! I will see you at 1:30 pm!
Bugscope Teamgood deal! Thank you! See you then!
- 11:54 am
- 12:11 pm
- TeacherSession 2 Marker
- Bugscope Teamsuper cool
- Bugscope Teamthings seem to have held well over the interim
- TeacherAwesome! :-) Should be ready in 15ish minutes.
- 12:19 pm
- Bugscope Teambe back in 5...
- TeacherOkay!
- 12:25 pm
- Bugscope Teamwe are ready to roll
- Teacherexcellent
- Bugscope Teamhere on fruitfly 2 we've found the remnants of a biofilm
- 12:32 pm
- TeacherGive control to station 1, please :-)
Bugscope Teamsdt
Bugscope Teamstation 1 has control
- Bugscope Teamthis is the one with no head, so sorry!
- Bugscope Teamthankfully there are more
- Bugscope Teamplease feel free to ask any questions you'd like
- Bugscope Teamthe background is double-stick carbon tape, and the little craters are bubbles in the tape
- Bugscope Teamyou can see that you are moving steadily to the east
- Bugscope TeamCate had scribed lines between specimens
- Bugscope Teamthe specimens are all stuck to the tape, and the whole sample is then coated with gold-palladium
- 12:37 pm
- Bugscope Teamsome insects could lay hundreds of eggs at a time, others can do only a few
- Student*like
- Studentare those horns
Bugscope Teamthe things that look like horns are the claws on one of the fly legs. they have claws on each of the legs
- Studenthow many babies does an insect have?
Bugscope Teamit varies quite a lot; some insects are even livebearing and take care of the babies for a while
Bugscope Teamin fruitflies, the females are said to lay up to 100 eggs per day, but they max out at 2000 eggs in a (short) lifetime
- Studentwhat are those things that look likr worms
Bugscope Teamthe wormy things are special hairs to help the insect walk on vertical surfaces, like walls
- TeacherGive control to station 2, please :-)
Bugscope Teamstation 2 is the ruler
- Bugscope Teamthis is a whole fruitfly; it is a bit desiccated
- Bugscope Teaminsects have six legs, a head, a thorax, and an abdomen, and two antennae
- Studentthis is interesting
Bugscope Teamyay!
- Studentyes yay indeed
- Bugscope Teamcompared to a spider, for example, which has the head and thorax fused into a cephalothorax
- Bugscope Teamplus we know that spiders have eight legs
- Studentwhat does desiccated mean?
Bugscope Teamit means dried out
- Studentare those the compound eyes above the eyes?
Bugscope Teamonce we get to see up close it will make more sense
Bugscope Teamnow you can see the compound eyes, left and right -- the pad-like things are the bases of the antennae
- Bugscope Teaminside those pads are sensory organs that can key in on the sound of other fruitflies' wings
- StudentDo the eyes have hair on them?
Bugscope Teamyes they do. the little hairs sticking out from them help them fly better by feeling where the air is blowing from
- 12:42 pm
- Bugscope Teamthe hairs are generally called setae (see-tee)
- Studentis that a tongue?
Bugscope Teamit is the proboscis -- kind of an extended mouth
- TeacherGive control to station 3, please :-)
Bugscope Teamthey have control
- Studentwhy does the eyes look like that
Bugscope Teamthey are made up of hundreds of lenses called ommatidia, and the shape helps them by permitting better peripheral vision
- Bugscope Teamthey also have three simple eyes on the top of the head called ocelli
- Bugscope Teamyou can see them here, right in the middle
- Bugscope Teamonly one ocellus can be seen well, exactly in the center
- Bugscope Teamwe can see that the wing is folded; some fruitflies have folded wings as part of their phenotype - how the genes are expressed
- Studentis the wing broken?
Bugscope TeamI think it is just bent but I am not sure
- StudentWhat is the life span of a fruitfly?
Bugscope TeamI think as adults they live only a few weeks
- Studentarent these the eyes
Bugscope Teamyes those are ommatidia -- the eye facets
- 12:47 pm
- StudentWhats the pointed things?s
Bugscope Teamthose are bristles, or setae, that help the fruitfly sense wind speed and direction
- TeacherGive control to group 4, please :-)
Bugscope Team4 has control
- Studentdo those hairs on their eyes help them see
Bugscope Teamnot as far as we know -- they help them fly by letting them know where the wind is coming from
- Studenthow long does it take for a fruit fly to become full size?
Bugscope Teamonly a few weeks
Bugscope Teamthankfully they stay pretty small
- StudentThank you Cate!!!
- StudentHow fast can a fruit fly travel?
Bugscope Teamthey can only fly about 1.5 mph
Bugscope Teampretty far for such little dudes
Bugscope Teamand dudettes
- Bugscope Teamhere we can see the ball-like end of one of the halteres
- TeacherGive control to station 5, please :-)
Bugscope Teamgot it!
- StudentThank you Scot!!!
- Studentwhats that folded thing
Bugscope Teamthe thing in the lower left that was wrinkled was the abdomen -- like the stomach
- Studentit looks crushed
Bugscope Teamthey're not completely crushed, but some are kind of dried out and shrunken
- Studentwhat is a halteres?
Bugscope Teamthey beat opposite the wings on flies. they help stabilize them. they are like modified secondary wings, since flies only have 1 pair of wings
- 12:52 pm
- TeacherGive control to station 6, please :-)
- StudentAre the wings chipped?
Bugscope Teama little bit; when Cate mounted the specimens for today's session she had to push them into the tape well enough to get them to stick tight
- Studentthis is really cool
Bugscope TeamSweet! It's fun for us to be able to do this.
- Bugscope Teamhere we can see the sponging mouthparts of the fruitfly
- Bugscope Teamthey are said to feed on fungus that they find on fruits
- Studentwhat are those circles that are cracked
Bugscope Teamthose are features in the carbon tape that the flies are stuck to
- Bugscope Teamthis is a nice closeup view of the mouthparts
- Student im gay colour
Bugscope Teamno color with electrons, though
- Bugscope Teammany flies are like this -- they spit digestive juices onto their prospective food and then sop it up
- Bugscope Teamhere we see one of the halteres, in the upper middle
- Bugscope Teamand the little cave, which is a spiracle
- Bugscope Teaminsects breathe through the spiracles, which they can open and close
- 12:58 pm
- StudentThank you ...... :))))
- TeacherThis session will be coming to an end. :-)
Bugscope Teamoh no!
- StudentThank you for all the information. We all learned a lot and hope to do this again.
- StudentThanks Scot & Cate, we had so much fun!
Bugscope TeamThank YOU!
- StudentThanks so much Cate and Scot for your time and this experience
- Bugscope Teamthanks
- Studentthank you cate and scot
Bugscope Teamreally fun for us, thank you for coming on board
- StudentThanks Cate and Scott from Station 2
Bugscope Teamsweet. Thank you!
- StudentThank you so much Scott and Cate for your time and effort to answer our questions!
Bugscope Teamit is really fun for us, thank you
- Bugscope Teamsee you next time!Q
- TeacherThanks guys!! They loved it! :-) We'll chat with you tomorrow!
- Bugscope TeamThank you!