Connected on 2019-09-12 13:00:00
from Hurdle Mills, North Carolina, United States
- 12:36 pm
- Bugscope Teamback to it
- 12:42 pm
- 12:48 pm
- Bugscope Teamhi!
- Bugscope TeamHi Mrs Emmert!
- Bugscope TeamType in the box just below where this line just appeared.
- 12:53 pm
- TeacherHey there! THANKS SO MUCH FOR TODAY!
- TeacherI am going to go get my students and I'll be right back.
- Bugscope TeamHi all!
- 12:58 pm
- Bugscope Teamhey there!
- Bugscope TeamJust a note: I had to refresh the browser to see new chat
- Bugscope Teamthis is a butterfly tongue, all curled up
- 1:05 pm
- Bugscope TeamNow we see the compound eyes, on either side of the proboscis (the tongue)
- Bugscope TeamCan we get close to the surface of one of the eyes?
- TeacherHello! we are here in north carolina with about 20 fourth and fifth graders!
- Bugscope Teamhey there!
- Bugscope Teamyay!!!
- Teacherthis is our introduction to microscopy!
- Bugscope TeamWelcome to Bugscope!
- Bugscope TeamHi everone!
- Bugscope TeamThis is the head of a Heliconius butterfly
- TeacherWhat are the shiny parts?
- Bugscope Teamcurled up near the center of the head is its proboscis
- TeacherHow long is the tongue?
Bugscope TeamI think this one is fairly short, maybe a centimeter
- Bugscope Teamthis is a bee, kind of sad looking
- Bugscope TeamWhoops, I scooted over to the bee.
- TeacherTHey are guessing one or two inches.
Bugscope TeamI could be wrong, for sure
- Bugscope TeamThe bee has four wings
- Bugscope Teamall bees have four wings, and so do wasps
- Teachercan we see a wing?
- Bugscope Teamwhen they fly, they hook the two wings on each side together
- 1:10 pm
- Bugscope Teamthe morgan's sphinx moth has the longest tongue at 12-14 inches since it drinks nectar out of a type of orphid
- Bugscope Teamhamuli!
- Bugscope TeamTwo wings on one side of the bee.
- Bugscope Teamthe hindwing has little clips on it, called hamuli
- Bugscope Teamthere are hooks on the bottom wing
- Bugscope Teamthey clip their wings together using the hamuli. let's go closer, to see the hamuli
- Teachercool!
- Teacherhow do they hook their wings together?
- Teachermay we see the stinger and the eyes?
Bugscope Teamyes!
- Bugscope Teambut first -- this is what the little clips, the hamuli, look like
- Bugscope Teamlet's look at one of the compound eyes
- Bugscope Teamthis is one of the hamuli
- Bugscope TeamNow the bee eye...
- 1:16 pm
- TeacherThat's very magnified! How MUCH is that magnified?
Bugscope Teamit says it is about 479x so not much for an SEM
- Bugscope TeamNot really lashes, because they don't have eyelids either.
- Bugscope TeamThe numbers under the image show details about what the microscope is doing.
- TeacherIs hair on the eye? Do t\hey have eyelashes?
Bugscope Teamthe hair does not 'bug' them. It helps them to fly more efficiently by giving them information about wind currents
- Bugscope Teamwe see the surface of the compound eye, which is rounded
- TeacherDo their eyes get dry? Is it an eyebrow?
- Bugscope Teamthe compound eye has thousands of tiny facets, each kind of like its own eye
- Bugscope Teamthis shows one of the setae that is sticking out of the eye
- Bugscope Teamsetae = 'hairs'\
- Teacherincredible and crazy and creepy at the same time!
- Bugscope Teambecause we are looking at the surface of the eye at an angle, we don't see the individual facets of the eye very well right now
- TeacherWe have a request to see the ant stinger.
- TeacherDo all ants have stingers?
- 1:21 pm
- Bugscope TeamHere
- Bugscope TeamHere's the ant stinger.
- TeacherAre all microscope images black and white?
Bugscope TeamYes! Because we are using electrons rather than light to collect the images. Electrons are very small, smaller than light
- TeacherWhat type of ant is this?
Bugscope TeamI'm not sure. Sometimes we have trapjaw ants, but this is a more 'normal' kind of ant
- TeacherAlso, what kind of scientists are all of you?
- Bugscope TeamCate has a physics degree, plus a masters' degree in environmental science
- TeacherDoes the hair on an ant gather info like the hair on a bee?
Bugscope Teamyes, mostly for sense of touch information
- Bugscope TeamCamille is a computer scientist
- Bugscope TeamQuick answer: this scope doesn't use light, so there's no color either.
- TeacherThat's great!
- Bugscope TeamI'm an electron microscopist, as is Cate. I have a degree and English and biology, from years ago
- Bugscope TeamHairs at the base of the ant stinger.
- TeacherWOW! Impressive education!
- TeacherLet's compare the stinger of the ant to the bee's stinger! May we?
- 1:26 pm
- Bugscope Teamwe can see little setae (hairs) here
- Bugscope TeamB/W: the scope fires a beam of electrons at the ant or bee or whatever, scanning back and forth.
- Bugscope TeamHow many electrons reflect back from that part of the bee then says how "bright" the picture is there.
- Bugscope TeamInsects use setae to help sense their environment. Because they have an exoskeleton, they need to have those tiny hairs stick through to sense touch, hot/cold, wind, and also sense/taste chemicals in the air
- Bugscope Teamto the upper left we see a fly's claw
- Bugscope Teamnow it is centered
- Bugscope TeamGuys, what again is a "pulvillus"?
- Bugscope Teama pulvillus is a pad with sticky hairs on it (called 'tenent setae') that allow the insect to cling to surfaces
- Teacherour guess about a pulvillus: pelvis, the pulse of the heart, jaw,
- Bugscope Teamthat is how flies walk on glass and walk on ceilings
- Bugscope TeamI am not sure about the 'pul' part of the word, but the setae could also be called villi
- TeacherSpiders and other insects have those too?
Bugscope Teamyes, often the same thing, or something very much like that
- Bugscope TeamMost anything that can climb up a wall or a window has those sticky hairs, I think.
- 1:31 pm
- Bugscope TeamIf we look at the pulvillus up close we can see that the ends are flattened; it makes them stick better
- TeacherWhat is an ant tarsus?
Bugscope Teamthe claws are called tarsi
Bugscope Teamand actually the last four or five segments of the 'arm' are called tarsi
- Bugscope Teaminsects have setae -- the 'hairs,' which are sensory -- connected to nerves inside the exoskeleton
- Bugscope Teamthey also has super tiny hairs, called trichae or microsetae, that do not connect to anything inside of the exoskeleton (the 'shell' of the insect)
- Bugscope TeamGoing to the bee stinger...
- Bugscope Teamnow we see the tip of the bee's abdomen
- Bugscope Teamsticking out of the tip we see the stinger
- Bugscope Teamthe stinger has sliding parts that help cut into the surface of whatever it is stinging
- Bugscope TeamThe exoskeleton -- imagine living inside a 1300's suit of armor. You couldn't feel anything. That's why all those hairs.
- 1:37 pm
- Bugscope Teamkind of like an electric steak knife, sliding side by side
- Bugscope TeamStinger isn't actually that pointy.
- Bugscope TeamOops, the pointy bit is in the middle, protected by that sheath. I'll zoom in.
- Bugscope Teamwhen a honeybee stings a mammal, the stinger gets caught in the mammal's (like a human, for example) skin
- Bugscope Teamwhen the honeybee tries to fly away, it leaves the stinger embedded in the mammal's skin
- Teacherthe stinger doesnt look very sharp
- Bugscope TeamThe sheath around the pointy bit may be what guides the bee's venom into your skin.
- Bugscope Teamthe stinger has a kind of outboard motor on it that pumps the venom into the skin
- Bugscope Teamthe outboard motor gets pulled out of the bee, leaving a big hole in the tip of its abdomen, and that kills the bee, unfortunately
- Bugscope Teamso we see a sharp component, or did a minute ago
- Teacheris it?
Bugscope Teamit doesn't appear to be, but a needle probably wouldn't look very sharp magnified like that either
- Bugscope Teamthe pieces of the stinger slide, side by side, to help cut
- 1:42 pm
- Bugscope Teamone side of the stinger is serrated, to help it cut
- TeacherCan we see the roly poly?
- Bugscope TeamHere's the pollen grain on the fly.
- Bugscope Teamnow we can see a small pollen grain, some sensory setae (the big 'hairs'), and some microsetae (the very small 'hairs')
- Bugscope Teamthe pollen grain is about 40 microns, or micrometers, long
- Bugscope Teama micrometer is one one thousandth of a millimeter, so it is quite small
- Bugscope Teambacteria are often about 2 micrometers long
- Teacher?
- Teacherhow long is the avrage bee
Bugscope TeamI would say about a centimeter and a half, so about 15 millimeters
- Bugscope Teamthis is a haltere
- Bugscope Teaminsects with two wings almost always have a tiny vestigial wing like the haltere that beats at the same frequency as the wing, but opposite those beats
- 1:47 pm
- Bugscope Teamthe halteres help the insect (such as a fly) maintain equilibrium in the air
- Teacherwe are leaving now bye and thank you for doing this
- Teacherone more question
- Teacherhow do we become scientists
Bugscope TeamI think the way to do it is to ask questions and explore a bit further in order to try to answer those questions
- Bugscope Teamstudy something in the physical sciences field and you are basically a scientist. You could do more, depending on what your interests are. Like you could study genes or viruses
- Bugscope Teamthere are many kinds of scientists, and I think the way they started out was to wonder why a particular thing is the way it is. like why are there halteres? why do some insects have four wings, but fly using two, stuck together on each side?
- Bugscope TeamJust being curious. If you stay curious about one thing long enough, you might become smart enough about that for someone to pay you to work at that!
- Bugscope TeamWe work with lot of scientists and help them get answers to their questions by teaching them how to use these instruments, including this scanning electron microscope
- 1:53 pm
- Bugscope TeamMrs Emmert we really appreciate having you and your classroom on board with us today.
- Bugscope TeamOK, Mrs. Emmert. Thanks for asking interesting questions!
- TeacherThank you for that advice! We really enjoyed this experience! Maybe in the spring, we can collect some insects to send to you and view on your microscope!
- TeacherGood bye and THANK YOU SO MUCH!!
- Bugscope TeamBye!
- Bugscope Teamsure! Hope to see you again
- Bugscope TeamWe'd love to see some North Carolina bugs.
- Bugscope TeamOK, we're shutting down here. See you next time!
