Connected on 2010-07-12 11:00:00 from Glendale, AZ, US
- 10:13am
- Bugscope Team good morning!
- Bugscope Team we are just about ready to start setting up for today's session
- Bugscope Team we have to wait a tiny bit more for the 'scope to pump down
- Bugscope Team then we'll be able to turn on the electron gun
- Bugscope Team like now...
- 10:18am
- 10:24am
- Bugscope Team let us know if you have any questions
- 10:29am
- Bugscope Team we're making today's presets
- 10:34am
- 10:40am
- 10:46am
- Bugscope Team We are done, ready to roll!
- 10:51am
- Bugscope Team Newteacher where are you from?
- 11:25am
- Guest I'm from Crestwood Kentucky- planning a unit on Monarch butterflies and was curious about Bugscope
- Bugscope Team while we are waiting for Christine -- she is having computer problems -- we have given you control of the microscope. you may drive and/or select from any of the presets and drive from there, if you wish
- Bugscope Team with Bugscope you can control the microscope, chat with us, log your students in as well so they can chat, and also if you wish you can let us give control of the 'scope to students -- one at a time, of course
- Bugscope Team some schools do this in computer labs, where students can each have a computer, or can work two to a computer; and some schools project the interface on a screen; some schools use smartboards...
- 11:30am
- Bugscope Team if you want, you can click on any of the presets to the right of this chat box, and the microscope will drive to that place on the stub.
- Bugscope Team you can scroll through the presets if you wish
- Bugscope Team cool. this is just a few ommatidia on one of the compound eyes
- Bugscope Team hi Oceli!
- Guest very cool
- Bugscope Team Sorry this is a compound, not a simple eye.
- Bugscope Team Oceli where are you from?
- Guest Colombia
- Bugscope Team Wow. Cool!
- Bugscope Team now we are looking at what are more like ocelli -- the stemmata on the caterpillar's head
- 11:36am
- Guest amazing
- Bugscope Team Oceli would you like to drive? We can give you control of the microscope if you'd like to try it out.
- Bugscope Team I just gave you control. You should see the controls to the right of the image.
- Guest wow
- Guest thanks
- Bugscope Team now you can see the stemmata a little better
- Bugscope Team one of the entomology grad students here is from Colombia
- Guest that is great
- Bugscope Team when you focus, you have a choice of up or down -- you can watch to see if it gets worse or better...
- Bugscope Team her sister is also an entomologist
- Guest I study forest engineering, this is a field that i find interesting
- Guest Any details on what we're looking at now?
- 11:41am
- Bugscope Team these are the legs of the caterpillar, up close
- Bugscope Team they have six regular legs, like an insect, of course
- Bugscope Team and they also have prolegs, which we can see now
- Bugscope Team prolegs have lots of little hooks in them called crochets
- Guest That was my next question
- Bugscope Team caterpillars also often have the ability to produce silk, and the silk 'spigots' are near the mouth.
- Bugscope Team now you can see some of the crochets
- Guest Is that what they use to connect when they're hanging?
Bugscope Team yep that's right
- Bugscope Team you can actually see some of the silk as well -- some strands of it
- Bugscope Team it'
- 11:46am
- Bugscope Team s a little ball of something, less than 10 micrometers in diameter.
- Guest it is amazing how close it can get
- Bugscope Team bacteria are 2 microns in length -- the bacilli
- Bugscope Team so we can see them no problem when they are there
- Guest wow!
- Bugscope Team Oceli you are a good driver.
- Guest haha thanks
- Guest How do you differentiate different kinds of bacteria
Bugscope Team you would have to do it using other means than we have -- like genotyping them
- Bugscope Team to the left is silver paint that Cate put down to make the caterpillar stick better.
- Bugscope Team the stemmata!
- Bugscope Team and there may not be much to see at high mag
- Bugscope Team if you go to preset 18 you may find something that you can focus on at those higher magnifications
- 11:52am
- Bugscope Team today's teacher, in Arizona, is having computer problems
- Bugscope Team the little round balls we can barely see now are brochosomes
- Guest will she be able to reschedule?
Bugscope Team we will send her a message and ask her if she'd like to reschedule -- this happens sometimes
- Bugscope Team they come from leafhoppers, from the Malpighian tubules
- Bugscope Team Oceli when we use the microscope for Bugscope we keep the sample at a long working distance -- there is a lot of space between the electron source and the sample
- Bugscope Team we do that so our participants can see as much of an insect as possible at low mag
- Bugscope Team so when we go to high mag at a long working distance we do not have optimal imaging conditions
- Bugscope Team now you can see where you were
- Bugscope Team this is the coiled proboscis
- Bugscope Team of a butterfly
- 11:57am
- Bugscope Team and this is a detail of the proboscis
- Bugscope Team scales are responsible for the color we see, both the structural color and the pigmented color
- Bugscope Team and scales are also helpful for getting out of spider webs -- the moth or butterfly (or mosquito or silverfish) can leave its scales stuck to the web and get away, sometimes...
Bugscope Team they can shed them but they dont molt away like feathers. They kind of act like a defensive measure, like if they get stuck in a web, they shake a few loose
- Bugscope Team awesome you are doing such a good job
- Guest interesting
- 12:02pm
- Bugscope Team this is a seta -- a 'hair'
- Guest I have to log off- had a great time. I'm sure I'll follow up in the classroom. Thanks!
Bugscope Team Thank You! See you!
- Bugscope Team now we are looking at the surface of the eye, and it is a little hard to focus now -- but you can go to a lower mag and it will work better.
- Guest what coul be that Scot?
Bugscope Team there looks to be some dried juju on there, and the holes look like the little cones were torn away
- Guest thanks
- 12:07pm
- Bugscope Team sorry I had some guys in here asking questions about bone
- Guest no problemo
- Bugscope Team heh
- Bugscope Team do you say no problemo in Spanish?
- Guest no
- Guest haha
- Bugscope Team now you can see the scales, and you can see where they're missing
- Guest in spanish it is "no hay problema"
- Bugscope Team no hay una problema?
- Bugscope Team well I was close...
- Guest yes
- Bugscope Team now you can see where Cate put a bunch of silver paint to help make the wing conductive
- 12:12pm
- Guest why?
Bugscope Team we sputter coat gold-palladium onto the samples -- several nanometers thick.
- Guest all the objects under the microscope need to be conductive?
Bugscope Team yes when we use this microscope like a regular SEM , as we are doing now
- Bugscope Team but when you have individual components like scales -- they are not easily grounded to the stub even when they are coated like that6
- Guest i see
- Bugscope Team so we ground the samples better by striping silver paint on the edges, and then we look for the darker areas that are not charging up with electrons
- Bugscope Team it's like clipping a ground wire onto the sample
- Bugscope Team so it may be that the dark area in the center will look better at high mag
- Bugscope Team so do you call these hormigas?
- Guest yes
- Bugscope Team cool
- Bugscope Team you can see that her jaw is serrated like a steak knife, for cutting
- Guest Atta sp. i think
- Bugscope Team oh wow
- 12:17pm
- Bugscope Team I have been reading the new book about ants by Mark Moffett.
- Bugscope Team but we are not taxonomists or even entomologists
- Bugscope Team some entomologists are not happy about all of the press that ants get
- Guest you are so lucky having this kind of instruments
- Bugscope Team we are! it is really a lot of fun. we get to see all kinds of cool stuff
- Bugscope Team not just insects/arthropods
- Bugscope Team we work with food science people, blood people, self-healing polymer people, flexible silicon people, etc.
- Bugscope Team we train researchers here to do their work using a whole suite of microscopes, and micro and nanoCT systems
- 12:22pm
- Guest when i first saw a leaf under a stereoscope i found a new world, i was so amazed. Now this
- Bugscope Team once we got photos of a mite on the underside of a leaf mid-molt -- it looked like it was taking off its t-shirt
- Bugscope Team do you teach?
- Guest hahaha
- Guest no, I stuy forest engineering and enthomology is one of the fields that I like
- Bugscope Team just a part of what you do
- 12:28pm
- Bugscope Team we have been working with people who are interested in the wax on the surface of leaves, and bacterial attachment. we have also worked with a group who are interested in high-CO2 environments and how they affect plant growth, including the number of stomates.
- Bugscope Team this is the ball-and-socket joint of the antenna, and you can see tiny mold spores on the surface
- Guest hearing that is so amazing, I really love science, but here you need a lot of money to be a scientist
- Bugscope Team sounds like what you do is pretty cool. do you work with higher-altitude forests, and/or rainforests?
- Guest that is why I'm making this foundation that aims to foment the love for science and technology
- Bugscope Team that all sounds great to us, of course
- Guest right now I'm gonna work with high-altitude ecosistems with the foundation, the ecosistem called 'Paramo'
- Bugscope Team we are in the Beckman Institute for Advanced Science and Technology, part of the University of Illinois. a nerd paradise.
- 12:33pm
- Bugscope Team Paramo? So they are high-altitude forests?
- Guest this ecosistem is exclusive of "the Andes" mountains and most of it is on Colombia
- Bugscope Team but it is not so high that it does not have insects?
- Bugscope Team so the ecosystem (ecosistem) is called Paramo?
- Bugscope Team oh that is what you said below, sorry
- Guest well yes, the highest but don't think of it as an usual forest, no treesonly bushes and shurbs... Because of the low temperatures
- Bugscope Team does coffee grow at high altitudes?
- Bugscope Team sorry to be so uninformed...
- Guest oh, sorry about the "ecosystem" i usually get confused. There are insects, but not as many you'll find in a tropical forest
- Bugscope Team not a big deal we just spell differently
- Bugscope Team your English is far better than my Spanish
- 12:39pm
- Guest no problemo, ask anything you want. No, coffee grows only at lowe altitudes, over a temperature of like 28 °C
- Bugscope Team I will ask Diana, also, if she studies insects from the Paramo.
- Bugscope Team she is the grad student from Colombia
- Bugscope Team I guess this is an obvious question, but does coca grow at high altitudes?
- 12:44pm
- Guest there are 2 species of Coca, the genus Erythroxylum, the Erythroxylum coca and the Erythroxylum novogranatense, each with some varieties that grow from the sea level to aproximatedly 2000 meters over sea level
- Bugscope Team erythro- does that mean they have red coloration?
- Guest yes
- Guest the fruits are red
- Bugscope Team ah and they must be natural and also farmed, I guess? I saw that Peru may have overtaken Colombia in coca cultivation
- Bugscope Team Oceli it has been very pleasant to get to talk with you. Here is my email address: sjrobin@illinois.edu
- Bugscope Team You are welcome to connect with us anytime, and if it would be helpful as part of a presentation you are welcome to set a Bugscope session up with us.
- Guest diegoct11@hotmail.com if you have any question about the ecosystems around here
- Guest thanks
- Bugscope Team Bugscope is up only during certain times, usually twice a week.
- Bugscope Team Cool so you are Diego? Nice to meet you!
- 12:50pm
- Guest yes, nice to meet you too
- Bugscope Team be sure to come back when you get a chance; it would be cool to image some of the insect species from the Paramo.
- Guest that would be awesome
- Guest see you next time and thaks for everything
- Bugscope Team Thank You!
- Bugscope Team See you Diego!
