Connected on 2011-11-15 09:30:00 from Gallatin, Montana, United States
- 8:26am
- Bugscope Team we will start making presets in a few minutes
- 8:39am
- Bugscope Team Good morning, Jerry!
- 8:45am
- 8:50am
- Bugscope Team we're making the presets for today's Bugscope session, which starts at 9:30 central time
- 8:58am
- 9:03am
- 9:08am
- Bugscope Team Good morning, Mr McGeehan!
- Bugscope Team Welcome back to Bugscope!
- Teacher Hi guys. Brian McGeehan here. I'll be bringing kids in around 9:25 to have them start logging in. Looking forward to it. We have two classes back to back - will be about 10 minutes in between
- Bugscope Team Cool we are working to finish up the presets.
- 9:15am
- Teacher Back in about 10 or 15 - time to round up the kids.
- 9:21am
- 9:26am
- Bugscope Team brb
- Bugscope Team alright we are ready to roll!
- 9:31am
- Teacher OK...back - kids are just coming in - it will take 2-3 minutes for them to log in
- Bugscope Team Sounds great!
- Bugscope Team this is the head of a female housefly
- Bugscope Team she's sticking her forearm out toward us
- Bugscope Team good morning LanceNate!
- Bugscope Team good morning, everyone! I cannot type all of your names that fast.
- Bugscope Team please let us know when you have questions
- Bugscope Team I am at the SEM and can drive the 'scope directly when it's necessary.
- Bugscope Team the presets, from which whomever is driving may select, are on the screen to the left
- Student hi
- 9:36am
- Bugscope Team Hi Jordan!
- Bugscope Team Welcome to Bugscope!
- Student u have a ps3
Bugscope Team no we just play with equipment like this
- Student is the Japanese beetle poisinous
Bugscope Team no I don't think so but it is likely not tasty
- Student hi
Bugscope Team Hi Garrett!
- Bugscope Team this is the third set of legs
- Student hey jamie and shelby
- Student it looks so cool
Bugscope Team we are lucky to have this
- Bugscope Team the last several segments of an insect's leg are the tarsi, including the segment with the claws, if it has claws
- Bugscope Team 'mudra' is a joke -- it's what the position of a Buddha's is called
- Student Is this the highest magnification microscope in the world? How high is the magnification?
Bugscope Team with a transmission electron microscope it is possible to see atoms
- Bugscope Team this is relatively low magnification but very good resolution
- Student what is this bug????????
- Student what is this bug\
Bugscope Team this is a Japanese beetle
- 9:41am
- Bugscope Team it is a plant pest
- Student How many people are usually at the microscope?
Bugscope Team usually one person uses the 'scope at a time, to do her/his own research
- Bugscope Team for Bugscope we usually have one or two people
- Bugscope Team to try and answer questions
- Student so what are the hairs on the bug for?
- Bugscope Team they are sensory, usually
- Bugscope Team because insects do not have skin, they have tiny hairs called 'setae' that stick through the cuticle and help them sense their environment
- Student why are there hairs inside a ant mouth
Bugscope Team to help the ant taste and manipulate its food
- Bugscope Team the ant has two mandibular and two maxillary palps that are like tiny accessory limbs
- Bugscope Team in its mouth
- Bugscope Team this is the compound eye
- Student How many circles does an ant have in it's eye?
- Student do ants have teeth? if so, how many?
Bugscope Team no insects have real teeth; the ant has two mandibles that open from side to side like a gate, and the mandibles (jaws) have serrations on them that resemble teeth
- 9:46am
- Bugscope Team sometimes the mandibles are hardened at the tips -- they have metal in them, such as zinc, to make them harder
- Bugscope Team when an ant's mandibles become worn, it may retire from what it is doing, using its mandibles, and do something else
- Student What is a spiricle?
- Teacher looking for spiracles now
Bugscope Team we made a preset of a spiracle on the body of the stinkbug
- Student What is the eye called beside a compound eye?
Bugscope Team the individual facets of the eye are called 'ommatidia,' singular is 'ommatidium.'
- Bugscope Team tiny pores like this are sometimes tentorial pits
- Student do ants have eyelids?
Bugscope Team no they do not have anything to cover their eyes, but they do not really sleep either
- Student is this a spiracle
Bugscope Team I think it is a pit that does not go anywhere. On the inside there will be an extension of the cuticle that the muscles are attached to.
- Student how many compound eyes in one eye of an ant?????????
Bugscope Team it depends, of course, but usually it is a small number. There can be from around 12 to 1000.
- Bugscope Team some ants do not have eyes at all
- 9:52am
- Student when does a stinkbug spray? when it's angry or scared?
Bugscope Team yes that is exactly right
- Bugscope Team you can see the external opening of the sink gland on the other side of the body
- Bugscope Team now you can see the tip of the proboscis
- Bugscope Team stinkbugs are 'true bugs' -- hemiptera
- Student is it both or is it just one?
Bugscope Team both
- Teacher I think Jake and Gavin ment entomologist
- Student what is the stuff that makes up the stink bugs spray
- Student scot are you an arthoplagyst
Bugscope Team I am an entomologist only by default, that is, not really. I do hang around with them and ask a lot of questions.
- Bugscope Team because I have been doing this for more than 12 years I have learned a few things. I have a degree in biology and english and have been doing electron microscopy for a long time
- Student is this a sucking mouth?
Bugscope Team it is a piercing/sucking mouth
- Student is it a chopping mouth? what do they eat??
Bugscope Team they are plant pests, so they poke their proboscises into leaves and stems and branches and suck the juices out of plants
- 9:57am
- Student Is this a sucking mouth
Bugscope Team yes it is -- piercing sucking mouthparts
- Student what do they pierce and what do they suck up?
Bugscope Team leaves, stems, small branches; they consume the plant fluids
- Student What are polen grains made of?
Bugscope Team they are made of a number of proteins, some of which apparently people cannot agree upon
- Student on the polen do the divets serve any purpose?
Bugscope Team they help it stick to things and thus make the pollen mobile or suited to being carried around
- Student is the moth eye different from the ant eye?
Bugscope Team yes it is better, and especially at seeing in the UV
- Student what are the feathery things on the moth?
Bugscope Team those are scales, which are modified setae
- Bugscope Team if you were a butterfly or moth or mosquito or silverfish, your scales would help protect you when you might fly into a spider web
- 10:02am
- Student How long have you been running the Microscope? Months? Years?
Bugscope Team I have been doing electron microscope full time since May 1983.
- Student this is really cool how many other schools get to do this in a years time???
Bugscope Team probably 40 to 45
- Student What is the UV?
Bugscope Team sorry - UV is ultraviolet light, and moths and some other insects can see light in those wavelengths. we cannot see it without using a black light.
- Student Wow!
Bugscope Team I did transmission electron microscopy for 5 years and then have been running labs with both TEM and SEM (what this is) for I guess about 23 years.
- Bugscope Team these are bacteria sitting above a biofilm that they produce to protect themselves
- Bugscope Team they are bacilli -- the rod-shaped bacteria
- Bugscope Team the other kinds of bacteria are cocci, which are round, and spirochetes, which are spiral
- Bugscope Team spirochetes are the bad bacteria
- 10:07am
- Student Are the stringy things biofilm?
Bugscope Team yes they are! they are the remnants of the biofilm after it dried.
- Bugscope Team a biofilm is normally a gel that the bacteria (not all types do this) exude and then live in
- Student COOL
- Student where did this bacteria come from? was it in the U.S?
Bugscope Team I am sorry I don't recall, but it was from someone here who want to look at them. So yes the US.
- Teacher Scott...what is a trap door on a jumping bean
- Student Whoa.
- Student cool
- Bugscope Team Mexican jumping beans have larvae in them, and when they hatch they need to cut their way out.
- Student cool
- Bugscope Team so this is the door. it is full of scales -- the moth must have really been struggling to get out
- Student What's coming out of the trap door?
Bugscope Team those are moth scales that came off of its body as it was trying to squeeze out
- Bugscope Team this is a close up view of the pulvillus between the claws of a housefly
- Bugscope Team and now, obviously, lower mag of the same thing'
- Student thanks
- Bugscope Team the tiny setae, called 'tenent setae,' are sticky and responsible for the fly being able to walk on the ceiling, for example
- Student thank you
- Student thank u this was epic
- Student thanks and bye
- Student THANKS!
- Student thank you very smartish
- Student thank you this was very cool
- Bugscope Team Thank You, Everyone!
- Student THANK YOU TTYL
- Student thanks man i appreciate it
- 10:12am
- Bugscope Team this is fun for us
- Student Thanx scott that was totahlly awesome
- Teacher Great job Scott - these guys are on their way out. A new group in soon...
Bugscope Team totally cool
- Student It looks like velcro!!! Thank you Scott!!!! This has been really cool!!!
Bugscope Team Thank you!
- Bugscope Team brb
- Bugscope Team okay we are back!
- Bugscope Team please let us know when you have questions
- Guest I just stumbled upon this live session what ages do you usually work with
Bugscope Team from K to 12, and sometimes college
- 10:18am
- Bugscope Team very young kids aren't likely to be typing questions, and they often get tired sooner, of course
- Guest OH! I am interested, I am going to collect some information this is amazing
Bugscope Team you're in the right place!
- Guest Is it possible to catch live sessions often? or is it better to runour own
Bugscope Team it is possible to catch a live session twice a week. certainly it is better to run your own.
- Guest we would collaborate
- Guest I am not the science teacher, but the tech teacher
Bugscope Team it is often the tech teacher who gets the others involved
- Bugscope Team we are booked into May/June now, as a result of two kind of bursts of publicity
- Guest Okay do you have suggestions where to start? I will look at the curriculum and see where we fit,
- Bugscope Team so you might want to apply soon and leave the dates open; Kendra can set you up
- Guest ookay great, thanks!
- Guest how long before we run a live session would we apply
Bugscope Team I am sorry -- it is a while now. But you are always welcome to check in with us like this.
- Guest have a great day!
Bugscope Team Thank you -- You too!
- 10:23am
- Teacher back for round 2 - kids are just logging in now
Bugscope Team fantastic!
- Bugscope Team good deal!
- Bugscope Team ready to roll!
- Student awesome!
- Bugscope Team whoa lot of students! hello!
- Bugscope Team Hi Dillon!
- Bugscope Team this is a fly's claw, and you can see the sticky hairs called tenent setae that enable it to walk on the ceiling, or on glass, etc. no problem
- Bugscope Team the pad is called a 'pulvillus,' and you can tell, pretty much, if for example a beetle is going to be able to climb, by whether it has that particular feature
- Student that stuff looks velcro is it?
Bugscope Team it is sort of like Velcro the way it works, but it is composed of single sticky hairs
- Student hi
Bugscope Team Hi!
- Bugscope Team now moving up to the thorax
- Bugscope Team and the head
- Bugscope Team you can see the antennae now
- 10:29am
- Bugscope Team there is a pad portion with the Johnston's organ inside, and the aristate portion of the antenna, which is branched
- Student Why are there hairs around the eye?
Bugscope Team those are sensory hairs/bristles/setae much like the whiskers of a cat or rat
- Student Do flys have eye lashes?
Bugscope Team sort of, but their eyes do not blink
- Bugscope Team because they do not have skin with nerve endings at the surface, insects have setae that stick through the cuticle to help them sense their environment
- Student i remember that these are compound eyes but why do they see better than us?
Bugscope Team they have much better peripheral vision -- they don't have to turn their heads as much as we do. also, all of those individual lenses -- the ommatidia -- pick up changes in the visual field very quickly, so it is hard to smack a fly, for example'
- Bugscope Team compound eyes are sometimes sensitive to wavelengths of light we cannot see, like UV. but of course I would prefer not to be an insect
- 10:34am
- Bugscope Team setae can be mechanosensory -- touch sensitive; chemosensory, meaning that they can sense small amounts of chemicals in the air; or thermosensory, for hot/cold sensation
- Teacher What is this structure at the base of the antennae?
- Student do they see different things out of each lense
Bugscope Team slightly different, and all of the images are stitched together in the brain
- Student cool
- Bugscope Team these are the antennae, with their two components
- Bugscope Team you can see the sponging mouthparts as well, and two palps that help the fly taste its potential food
- Bugscope Team some of the tiny setae we see are not sensory -- they serve other purposes
- Student why does the fly's facets shaped like pentagons and not circles?
Bugscope Team it's kind of like the solution to a stacking problem with round objects like oranges
- Student Why do the individual facets on the ant, dome shaped?
- Bugscope Team the best way to stack round objects is to have them form hexagons, but we see that pentagons are there as well, as in the Buckminster Fuller domes.
- Bugscope Team it's about the size of a large desk, like an executive desk, with a 6-foot column on one end.
- Student how large is this microscope?:)
Bugscope Team it has its own chilled water, filtered electrical service, nitrogen and air...
- 10:40am
- Teacher nice bucky ball reference!
Bugscope Team ha yeah the precursor to nanotubes and now graphene
- Student cool!!!
- Bugscope Team this is one of the spiracles on the thorax of the stinkbug
- Student HOW FAR CAN YOUR MICROSCOPE ZZOOM IN?
Bugscope Team this one can go to a million x but for a publishable image in a research paper the max is about 250,000x.
- Student why do they have a different breathing system?
Bugscope Team that is the way they started out, and it has not changed, fortunately for us. if insects had better respiratory systems they would be larger and more dangerous to us
- Bugscope Team they have what we consider a 'primitive' breathing system that limits their size; when the earth was younger and there was much more oxygen in the air, the insects could be larger as well
- Student nm=/
- 10:45am
- Student why does the microscope not show you in color?
Bugscope Team what we are seeing is 'signal,' in gray scale. it results from us beaming electrons at the sample that knock what are called secondary electrons out of the surface of the sample. we collect the signal from the secondary electrons in shades of gray.
- Student Doesnt their chiten exsoskelton limit their size?:):)
Bugscope Team in a way it does. some arthropods will undergo numerous molts as they become larger. once an insect reaches a stage at which it has wings, it is done
- Student Why can we zoom in farther with a electron microscope?
Bugscope Team we can see better because we are using an electron beam that is much smaller than the wavelengths of light. it is like the difference between playing a piano with mittens on compared to using your fingers -- obviously you have more sensitivity and can touch more keys with your fingers
- Student this looks like a sucking mouth what does it eat?
Bugscope Team it pierces the leaves and stems of plants and sucks out plant juices
- Student why do they call a stink bug a stink bug?
Bugscope Team it produces chemicals that smell bad and discourage other insects and birds, etc. from biting it or getting any closer
- 10:50am
- Bugscope Team these are bacilli, which are one of the three basic shapes of bacteria
- Student what are those strings around the bacteria?
Bugscope Team the very fine strings are the remnants of a film the bacteria had produced that protected them; the larger strings I am sorry -- I am not sure what they are from.
- Bugscope Team some bacteria produce a biofilm that is like a gel they can swim around in. it protects them from drying out and also from getting washed out of your vegetables, for example
- Bugscope Team some of the bad bacteria that are responsible for diseases live in biofilms that are hard to wash away
- Bugscope Team there are, generally: bacilli -- the rod-shaped bacteria; cocci -- the round ones; and spirochetes, which are spiral
- Bugscope Team spirochetes are often the very bad bacteria
- Bugscope Team found in diseases like syphilis and also gum disease
- Student Is this bacteria in the process of duplicating?
Bugscope Team yes I am sorry this is not well preserved, but yes
- 10:56am
- Student Why dont bacteria get larger:)?
Bugscope Team they reach a useful limit in size and then reproduce themselves; there must be some advantage in remaining small like that
- Student cool
- Bugscope Team we can get much better images of bacteria, and I am sorry the ones I put in the 'scope today were not nearly as good as some we have seen
- Bugscope Team part of the deal is that I did not want to take someone's bacteria without permission
- Student What are the stingers of hornets and bumble bees made of?:):):)
Bugscope Team they are made of chitin but may have, I believe (like the mandibles of some insects) metals in them that help harden them
- Bugscope Team chitin is like what our fingernails are made out of, or you could compare it to shrimp shells, which are the same thing
- 11:01am
- Bugscope Team this is a Mexican jumping bean, which is where a certain kind of moth larvae live until they become moths
- Student why do they call it the mexican jumping bean?
Bugscope Team because it has a larva in it that is alive, if you heat it a bit, it will jump around
- Bugscope Team the moth is to the right, or one of the moths
- Bugscope Team these are salt crystals from a Wendy's restuarant. they have a cool incised shape unlike normal salt crystals
- Student Thank you:):):):):)
- Student thank you a million SJ!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
- Student thank you that was really cool you guys are awesome
- Student Thanks
- Student This was so awesome thank you!
- Student Thank you for the presentation it was really cool. I want to do it again. Thanks SJ.
- Student Thank you! You are very knowledgeable
- Student Thanks
- Bugscope Team Thank You!
- Student Thanks, the show was awesome!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! :D
- Student thanks!!!!!
- Bugscope Team This is really fun for us.
- Student Thanks for being fantastic:):):):)
- Student Thank you!!!!!:)
- Bugscope Team You were driving a $600,000 microscope.
- Teacher SJ - that is the end of this class - fantastic!
Bugscope Team is that it for today?
- Bugscope Team do you have more classes coming in later?
- Bugscope Team Thank You, Everyone!
- Teacher This next period is an elective for our sevent graders. I have another class that comes in at the end of the hour - but I think we run out of time for our session, correct?
- 11:07am
- Bugscope Team Mr McG we had planned to run for another hour, 'til 12 our time. Does that work for you?
- Bugscope Team actually I can go 'til 1 my time if I get some food...
- Bugscope Team so just short of 2 hours more
- Bugscope Team up to you...
- Teacher SJ - well we don't have another class until 11:58 so if you can go to 1pm your time that would be great and we can run one more class!!! See you in about 45 minutes.
Bugscope Team let's do it
- Bugscope Team I'm heading up for food and plan to be ready in 45 as you said.
- 11:24am
- 11:49am
- 11:55am
- Bugscope Team (driving around looking for more presets...)
- 12:02pm
- Teacher OK...back with the next group. a few minutes as the get logged in!
- Bugscope Team Cool!
- Bugscope Team Hello K Roche and Jogger!
- Bugscope Team we are ready to roll
- Bugscope Team Jerry is likely gone...
- Bugscope Team please let us know when you have questions
- 12:07pm
- Bugscope Team this is a very small ant -- you can tell in a way by the scalebar
- Bugscope Team its head (her head) is only about a half millimeter in diameter
- Student why does this microscope take bettter images than a standard microscope?
Bugscope Team normal microscopes use light and glass lenses; we are using electrons, which are very small, and electromagnetic lenses to focus the electron beam
- Bugscope Team normal light microscopes are limited by the wavelengths of light
- Student Does a Ants eye have a lens
Bugscope Team it has a number of lenses, which is what the ommatidia -- the facets we see now -- are
- Bugscope Team the ant gets a kind of mosaic image of what is around it
- Bugscope Team ants depend more on their antennae to get information about their environment than their eyes
- 12:12pm
- Bugscope Team if you had compound eyes you wouldn't have to turn your head as much to see what is around you
- Student why are these in black in white and not color?
- Student are those dark spots holes? and what part of the wing is this
Bugscope Team this is one of the scales on a wing, and the dark spots are holes in between the lattices
- Bugscope Team this is a section of a Monarch butterfly wing
- Bugscope Team the scales are what make the wings feel so silky to us; they are what we see as the 'powder' that falls off of the wings when we rub them
- Bugscope Team wing scales have a number of purposes, and one is to produce the colors we see
- Bugscope Team the spacing between those ridges produces structural colors
- 12:18pm
- Student What happens after the electrons hit the object?
Bugscope Team the high energy electrons that hit the object cause what are then called secondary electrons to be ejected from the object. the scanning electron microscope collects the signal from the secondary electrons
- Student is there like a certain pattern?
Bugscope Team in the scales? yes, definitely, and it is responsible for different colors
- Bugscope Team to the top of this view is a dome like object that is actually an ocellus -- a simple eye
- Bugscope Team flying insects have, usually, three of them on the top of their head
- Bugscope Team they are simple eyes, not nearly as good as compound eyes; they see light and dark but help the insect maintain its orientation with respect to the sun as it flies
- Student is that the eye
Bugscope Team yes that little dome was one of the ocelli -- the simple eyes
- Student what is the purpose of the hairs
Bugscope Team the hairs, which are often called 'setae,' pronounced see-tee, are sensory; their purpose is to convey information through the cuticle to the nerves beneath
- Bugscope Team setae can be mechanosensory, like cat or rat whiskers; they can be thermosensory, registering hot/cold; and they can be chemosensory, used to sense smells in the air, such as pheromones, which are like perfume, in a way
- 12:23pm
- Student got to go
- Student we gotta go thanks
- Student we got to go thanks it was great
- Student do all compound eyes have the same pattern?
Bugscope Team no. some are more complex and have different capacities for collecting light
- Student sorry we have to go thank you :)
- Student Thank you this was a lot of fun!
- Student thank you
- Student thank you very much but we have to go
Bugscope Team oh no!
- Student we all have to go thank you vary much bye
- Student we have to go thank you christa and becky :)
- Bugscope Team Thank You!
- Student bye! thanks alot! that was amazing:) byeeeeee:)
- Student thanks a million
- Student Thank you for showing us the electron microscope pictures.
- Student thank you this was a really cool experience and fyi my mom is a scientist and she will probably think this ais craxy cool
- Student thanks again
- Bugscope Team Thank you for logging in today!
- Student thank man you rock pice
- Student bye!
- Student :>
- Teacher Scott - oops - another teacher in to use the lab so we are getting the boot. I thougt it was open. Thanks for offering to extend the session for these guys - very cool for them to see. Thanks again for another great session!!!
- Bugscope Team http://bugscope.beckman.illinois.edu/members/2011-114
- Bugscope Team below is your member page, in which you can see my typos and questions I missed, plus the good stuff
- Bugscope Team Thank You!
- Bugscope Team okay unless one of our guests would like to drive, I am shutting down for today.
- Bugscope Team over and out...
- Bugscope Team Thank you, everyone!
- Bugscope Team Bye!
- Teacher still there? just jumped to my room and we will project. let me know
