Connected on 2014-03-27 09:00:00
from Champaign County, Illinois, United States
- 7:54 am
- Bugscope Teamsample is in sputter coater
- Bugscope Teamswitch to 'scope in a minute
- Bugscope Teamsample is now in the 'scope
- 8:02 am
- Bugscope Teamwaiting for the vacuum
- 8:09 am
- 8:14 am
- TeacherHELLO
- Bugscope Teamgood morning!
- Bugscope Teamwelcome to Bugscope!
- TeacherMY TEACHERS WILL BE ARRIVING AT ABOUT 9, SO I WILL PROBABLY START BUGSCOPES AT ABOUT 9:15 IF THAT'S OK
- Bugscope Teamsounds great!
- 8:20 am
- 8:26 am
- 8:32 am
- 8:37 am
- 8:43 am
- 8:49 am
- Bugscope Teamwe are ready to roll
- 9:17 am
- TeacherScott we are ready to get started.
- Bugscope TeamSuper cool!
- Bugscope TeamRegion Three Teachers has control of the microscope right now.
- Bugscope TeamYou may click on any of the presets to get the microscope to drive to that position...
- Bugscope TeamI see you're doing that!
- Bugscope Teamplease, just as the kids do when they log on as Students, feel free to ask any questions you can think of.
- Bugscope Teamhere you can see the haltere, and the head of the fruitfly
- Bugscope Teamthis is all in greyscale because we're using electrons rather than light
- TeacherWhat can flies see, such as colors, shapes?
Bugscope Teamit depends on the fly, but they see most of the colors we do; I'm not sure if they see in UV but likely they do. Humans do not but recently I read that many mammals actually do see in UV as well.
- Bugscope Teamnot sure my comment went through, in my reply below
- Teacherwe didn't see your comment about the fly
- 9:22 am
- TeacherIs that a hair in the moth's eye?
- Bugscope Teamthis is a single seta -- a sensory 'hair' -- in the middle of the compound eye somewhere
- TeacherWhat are the tear dropped shaped things?
- Bugscope Teaminsects and comparable arthropods have exoskeletons, which is like having a shell like a shrimp, for example. or like if we were wearing suits of armor all of the time. the setae stick through the shell, or exoskeleton, and allow the bug to sense its surroundings/
- Bugscope Teamthe teardrop shaped things are loose scales, actually also modified setae
- Bugscope Teammoths, butterflies, mosquitoes, and silverfish, among a few other insects, have scales, which do numerous things but primarily protect those critters from getting caught in spiderwebs
- Bugscope Teamwhen you rub a butterfly's wings, the powder that comes off is scales
- TeacherIs the claw in the middle broken, or is it that way for a reason?
- TeacherAre the claws retractable?
- Bugscope Teamthe setae have a variety of functions. some are mechanosensory, some are thermosensory, some are chemosensory...
- 9:27 am
- Bugscope TeamI am not sure whether the claw is broken; sometimes they are. Mandibles tips are often hardened with zinc and other metals, and claws tips may be as well
- Bugscope Teamthe claw is somewhat retractable -- the ridged part we see is actually part of a tendon called an 'unguitractor'
- Bugscope Teamsome claws open and close, and its pretty apparent that some do not -- they're more like grappling hooks
- TeacherCould we see the lilly pollen?
- Bugscope Teamthese are double claws, and it seems most insect have single claws
- Bugscope Teamwe see, fairly consistently, that lilies have pollen in this shape. pollen morphology varies quite a bit.
- Bugscope Teammold spores often resemble pollen
- TeacherCould we send in leaves, or is it only for insects?
Bugscope Teamyou can certainly send leaves. the undersides sometimes have mites on them, and we can see the stomates...
- Bugscope TeamI think it's chrysanthemums that have these really cool features on the underside that resemble palm trees
- 9:33 am
- TeacherThank you so much Scott. We really enjoyed our session.
Bugscope TeamThank you for taking the time. Please feel free to apply; sometimes far in advance of the time you want is best.
- 9:43 am
- Bugscope TeamHi Brittany!
- Bugscope TeamCan you see this?
- Bugscope TeamSometimes the chat box drops out...
- Bugscope Teamnow I cannot see it myself
- Bugscope TeamThis is me on the SEM computer
- Bugscope Teamas an admin you can control the microscope
- Bugscope Teamthe teacher can as well, but an admin has more control and can click on a (logged in) student's name to give that person control of the 'scope
- Bugscope Team a star shows up next to the name of the student who's been given control
- Bugscope Teamcan you see this, Brittany?
- 9:48 am
- Bugscope Teamhello!
- Bugscope Teamhello
- Bugscope TeamTesting*
- Guestnot sure what is going on with chat
- 9:55 am
- Bugscope TeamI can see chat on computers that had been previously logged in
- Teacherhello!!!
- Teacherugh I don't know how to fix this
- Bugscope TeamTest*
- 10:01 am
- Bugscope TeamHi Anna!
- Bugscope TeamHi Mrs Gates!
- TeacherMrs. Gates room is here!
- Bugscope TeamHello!
- Bugscope Teamcan you read this?
- Bugscope Teamcan you see this?
- 10:06 am
- Bugscope TeamHello!
- Bugscope Teamhi Chas!
- Bugscope Teamwe are working on the chat communication problem...
- Bugscope Teamwe are working on the chat communication problem...
- Bugscope Teamtest
- Bugscope TeamHi Matt!
- Bugscope TeamMrs Gates we are working on this...
- Bugscope Teamfrom this computer I can see all of the chat...
- 10:11 am
- Bugscope Teamand from this computer
- Bugscope Teambut the others are locked out
- Bugscope Teamtest
- Bugscope Teamtest from office'
- GuestTest
- Bugscope Teamtest again
- 10:19 am
- Bugscope TeamHello!
- Bugscope TeamCan you see us now?
- Bugscope TeamHello!
- Bugscope TeamMrs Gates can you see this?
- Bugscope TeamPlease let me know if anyone can read this!
- Bugscope TeamHello!
- Bugscope TeamHello!
- Bugscope Teamcan anyone read this?
Bugscope Teamyes
- Bugscope Teamhaha super cool on that, tehn
- Bugscope Teamthen
- 10:24 am
- TeacherMrs. Gates class is here
- Bugscope TeamZ
- Bugscope TeamYay!
- Bugscope TeamPlease let us know when you have questions about anything at all.
- Bugscope TeamIf we need to reschedule because this has taken too long to repair, please also let us know.
- Bugscope Teamwe had a weird glitch in which the chat would not work -- it just disappeared, as maybe you know...
- Bugscope TeamHello Lincoln Magnet
- Teacherhello
- Bugscope TeamYay Brittany!
- Studenthello
- Studenthello
- StudentHello
- Studenthello
- StudentHi
- Bugscope TeamHi Davo!
- Studenthi
- StudentHey
- StudentHello
- StudentYolo
- Studentheyyyyyy! /D
- Studentheyyyyyy! /D
- Bugscope Teamplease let us know when you have any questions at all, about anything
- Bugscope Teamthis is the head of a female mosquito
- StudentHiya. C:
- StudentHello
Bugscope TeamHi Will!
- StudentHi
Bugscope TeamHi Davo!
- StudentMosquito head
- Bugscope TeamSorry about the glitch and welcome to BugScope. Sorry about the grey color, but these are all close up microscopic pictures of insects you may have seen around Springfield
- Bugscope TeamThis is a mosquito face -- the face of a female mosquito'
- 10:29 am
- Bugscope Teamyou can see the compound eyes
- Bugscope Teamand the antennae...
- Bugscope Teamthe small round things at the bases of the antennae are called pedicels
- TeacherCan you tell us about the microscope?
Bugscope Teamthe microscope is about the size of a very large desk, and one end is about 5 feet tall. it has its own air, electricity, water cooling, vacuum...
- Bugscope Teamthe sample are inside a vacuum chamber, and I can show you that if you would like
- TeacherWow- do you just look at bugs?
- Bugscope Teamsamples, that is
- Bugscope TeamThe eye has ommatidia unlike ours. See the small circles
- Bugscope Teamthis is the inside of the chamber where the insects are
- Bugscope Teamthe plate we see at the bottom of the image is a small platter of bugs
- Bugscope Teamthe chamber is under vacuum
- TeacherWhat are we looking at?
Bugscope Teamyou are looking at a mosquito's head straight on
Bugscope Teamthe two compound eyes are the two domes on the side that looks crocheted
Bugscope Teambetween that you can see two bumps, those are the pedicel, which hold the antennae (two long strawlike things coming out at us)
Bugscope Teamand the mouth parts are towards the bottom of the screen there
Bugscope Teamone thing you'll notice is that there seems to be a lot of ruffle chips all over, those are scales (a kind of modified setae, re:hair)
- Bugscope Teamthis is live imaging of dead insects
- StudentAre the insects alive when you take their picture?
Bugscope Teamno they are dead -- often we freeze them
Bugscope TeamNo, the pictures are a good way to preserve the insect long after it dies. Most only live for a season as an adult
- Bugscope Teamthe insects are coated with gold-palladium, using a sputter coater, to make them conductive
- 10:34 am
- Bugscope Teamyour teacher can control the microscope from your classroom now
- Bugscope Teamshe can change the mag, focus... and she can also choose from any of the presets to the left
- Bugscope TeamThis is the insect's foot :)
- Bugscope Teamthis is a beetle claw, and to the right we see the end of a long tendon called an unguitractor
- StudentHow?
Bugscope Teamour programmer, Chas, wrote software that can access the machine language that lets you drive the microscope remotely
- Bugscope Teamthese are salt crystals from a Wendy's restaurant
- Bugscope Teamthey are funny looking, and we are not sure why -- whether it is another chemical added as an anticaking agent that does that, or whether it is iodine.
- Bugscope Teamsalt usually looks kid of boring, like little cubes
- Bugscope Teamthis is a fruitfly
- TeacherReally???
Bugscope Teamhaha Yeah!
- Bugscope Teamhere we can see the haltere that the fruitfly uses to help it balance its flight
- 10:39 am
- Bugscope Teamthe club coming out of the middle of the body there is the haltere
- Bugscope TeamModified from the hindering for balance
- TeacherWhat are the little spiky things?
Bugscope Teamthose are bristles, or setae, or spines - the larger ones are likely touch sensitive: mechanosensory like cat or rat whiskers
- Bugscope Teamhindwings*
- Bugscope TeamThey don't live very long, a few months which makes them awesome to study in the lab
- Bugscope Teamthis is cool -- you can see the individual facets of the moth's eye
- Bugscope Teamand a single setae that is likely mechanosensory -- touch sensitive
- Bugscope TeamThere is genetic work being done on the flies that scientists can relate to humans
- 10:45 am
- TeacherA student wants to know why the lifespan of a fruit fly is so short?
Bugscope Teamone reason for that might be to prolong the life of the species, since the fruitflies can adapt in a relatively short time to changes in their environment
Bugscope Teamyea, the environment is a large factor
Bugscope Teama lot of insects have very short lifespans, although if we were to make pets of them they might live much longer
Bugscope Teamit varies lot depending on conditions, i would guess that it is a way for them to deal with constantly changing environments
Bugscope Teamthey have a really fast generation time, which means lots of them really quickly
- Bugscope Teamthe individual features of the ommatidia we see now are so small they are on the nanoscale
- Bugscope Teamthe ommatidia are hexagonal, and here they look like perfect hexagons; that shape is best for closepacking round objects in a three-dimensional configuration like a dome
- 10:50 am
- Bugscope Teamit looks like they are about 150 nm in diameter, thinner than the wavelengths of even UV light
Bugscope Teamdo you think that has to do with the spectrum they can see
- StudentHow did you guys get such high tech microscope?
Bugscope Teamwe applied for a grant from the National Science Foundation
Bugscope Teamthe microscope was to be used by researchers, which it is, and also to start Bugscope, 15 years ago
- TeacherHow much did it cost?
Bugscope Teamabout $600,000
- StudentWho invented this type of microscope?
Bugscope Teama number of people worked on the design, which is based on another kind of electron microscope\
Bugscope Teamthe transmission electron microscope was invented in about 1931, and this kind of microscope was based on that but the electron beam could be moved using scanning coils
- Bugscope Teamthis is an awesome beetle
- Bugscope TeamThe mouthparts look awesome!
- Bugscope Teamso this is a scanning electron microscope, and it works by capturing a very narrow electron beam and causing it to 'raster' repeatedly over a small area of our choice; the electron beam is high energy and makes what are called secondary electrons come out of the samples we are looking at
- Bugscope TeamAbout 1 out of 4 animals on earth is a beetle
- Bugscope Teamthe samples do not have to be conductive for this particular microscope if we use it in a different mode, but now we want to samples to be conductive; we put about 20 nm of gold-palladium on these samples
- Bugscope Team& some beetles glow in the dark :)
- 10:55 am
- TeacherWe recently used compound light microscopes in class- this is a lot cooler! We have started our study of invertebrates. What can you tell us about beetles?
- StudentThank you guys! Bye!
- Studentthank you
- StudentThank yoyo all! Bye :)
- StudentThank you! Bye
- Bugscope Teamthey wear body armor - their skeleton is outside their body
Bugscope Teamthat's right! so in order to be able to sense their environment they have lots of setae (which look like hairs to us) that stick through that armor
- Studentthanks you
- Studentbye and thanks
- Bugscope Teambye! thanks
- StudentThank You!!! We have to go
- StudentThank you! Have a great day:)
- StudentThank you! Meow Meow!
- StudentBye:) Thank you Bug Scope team!
Bugscope TeamThank you, Sophy!
- StudentThank you
- StudentThanks
- Bugscope TeamBye Lincoln Magnet
- Bugscope TeamWe are sorry for all of the delays today. And we look forward to seeing you again.
- StudentThank you for helping us learn about bugs bye.
Bugscope TeamMy pleasure
- Bugscope Teamhttp://bugscope.beckman.illinois.edu/members/2014-030
- 11:00 am
- Bugscope TeamI am so sorry about the delays. Let's do this again when it fits into your curriculum.
- Bugscope Teamthis, below, is a link to the chat, which we had started this morning with some teachers in Texas.
- TeacherMy students need to leave for lunch! Thank you for your time. Can I save this chat somehow?
Bugscope TeamYou might have to copy & paste it to word
Bugscope TeamGreat!
- 11:20 am
- GuestHi Scott
- GuestAre you there?
- Guesthey man