Connected on 2012-11-28 08:00:00 from Will, Illinois, United States
- 7:20am
- Bugscope Team sample is in 'scope and pumping down
- 7:30am
- Bugscope Team good morning, Fencer!
- Bugscope Team good morning, Teacher!
- Bugscope Team welcome to Bugscope!
- Bugscope Team we're making the presets for your session
- 7:36am
- 7:42am
- Bugscope Team let us know if you can read this
- Teacher i can..just getting set up for class..students arriving in a couple minutes
- Bugscope Team totally cool
- Bugscope Team Thank You
- 7:48am
- 7:53am
- Bugscope Team be right back...
- Bugscope Team alright back
- 7:59am
- Teacher we are ready when you are
- Bugscope Team great! you have control of the microscope
- Bugscope Team you can click on any of the presets, to the left; and you can also change the mag, focus, contrast/brightness
- Bugscope Team clicking on a preset makes the 'scope move to that position on the sample stub
- Bugscope Team please, also, let us know when you have questions
- 8:04am
- Bugscope Team I just clicked on the preset for the earwig's head
- Bugscope Team you can see its mouthparts and its compound eyes
- Bugscope Team the earwig is a female -- we can tell from the shape of its cercopods
- Bugscope Team and also -- it has mites
- Bugscope Team you can see some of the mites right now
- Bugscope Team please let us know if the controls are not working for you
- Bugscope Team we can also set it up so any student, one at a time, can drive the microscope
- Bugscope Team is anyone there?
- Student yeah sorry listenting to instructions
Bugscope Team Ace!
- Bugscope Team totally cool
- Bugscope Team now we're looking at a few palpi -- the palps, or accessory mouthparts
- Teacher sorry student computers dont have access to controls
Bugscope Team that is correct. you have control, and we can give control to one student at a time
- Student Hi
Bugscope Team Hi Pistachios!
- Bugscope Team you can see the compound eye to the lower middle
- Student What bug is this?
Bugscope Team this is an earwig
- 8:09am
- Student what is an earwig?
- Student Hello :) what do you study??
Bugscope Team we work with all disciplines of mostly grad students and postdocs -- we teach them how to use the 'scopes to perform their research
- Student What is the earwig sitting on?
- Student What is the backround
- Student What is an earwig?
Bugscope Team it's an insect that is known as a plant pest
- Student what is the earwig sitting on?
Bugscope Team it's on a carbon doublestick tape background
- Student what kind of bug is the earwig? (fly, spider, beetle)
Bugscope Team it is perhaps most closely related to beetles
- Student does the microscope show the color?
Bugscope Team no. we are using electrons to collect the images, and electrons are much smaller than the wavelengths of visible light that show color
- Student how does the microscope work?
Bugscope Team the sample is coated with gold-palladium -- a very fine coat, and we beam electrons at it in a vacuum chamber
- Teacher the scientist would like to control the microscope
Bugscope Team got it!
- Student did you kill the bugs in order to test them?
Bugscope Team they need to be dead so we can do this; if they were alive they would be quite unhappy in such a high vacuum
- Student is anyone there?
Bugscope Team yes
- Student What is the earwig sitting on?
Bugscope Team carbon tape we use to hold the specimens down, plus some silver paint to help ground them
- Student where's the head and body?
Bugscope Team this is the head, and the body is to the south
- Student what is this
- Student what are the hair like looking things on the earwig
- Student HI
- Student How are the specimens prepared to be viewed under the microscope?
Bugscope Team they are dried, and they are coated with about 20 nm of gold-palladium to make them conductive
- 8:14am
- Student Is the earwig missing an arm?
Bugscope Team yes, but you cannot see the thorax yet to tell
- Student Why is missing an arm?
Bugscope Team they are very fragile after they die
- Student oh
- Student why do they need to be conductive?
Bugscope Team we are beaming electrons at the samples and getting what are then called secondary electrons back; if the samples we not conductive the electrons would stay in the specimens and charge them up
- Teacher googly eyes would like to control the microscope
Bugscope Team got it!
- Student What is a thorax?
Bugscope Team that is the central portion of the body, like on people what is called the trunk; usually all six arms or legs are attached to it
- Student do you work with anything bigger or smaller than bugs?
Bugscope Team yes we do
Bugscope Team we work with all kinds of materials and biological samples
- Student How many arms or legs does it have then?
Bugscope Team all insects have six legs, a thorax, an abdomen, two antennae, and a head
- Student are the dent looking things on the carbon tape the resin?
- Student What is the smallest thing you have ever looked at?
Bugscope Team with the transmission electron microscope we can see carbon fringes that are 3.4 angstroms apart
- Student When you look at the bugs are they always dead?
- Student angstoms?
- Student so like bacterias?
Bugscope Team bacteria are usually -- the rod-shaped ones -- about 2 micrometers (microns) long, so no problem seeing them
- Student why isnt there any color?
Bugscope Team because we are using electrons, and the images come to us as signal, as grey scale
- Student who has the controls?
Bugscope Team googly
- Student What is the largest thing that you can view under this microscope?
- Student Have you ever looked at an atom before?
- 8:19am
- Student What type of microscope did you use to look at the earwig?
Bugscope Team you are using the microscope right now -- a $600,000 scanning electron microscope
- Student how small is an angstrom?
Bugscope Team a tenth of a nanometer
- Student what is a hello bug?
Bugscope Team that is a mite; I just typed hello because it is peeking out from under the earwig's neck
- Student Is the hello bug an insect
Bugscope Team no it is a mite
- Student Where is the head?
Bugscope Team the head is hardly recognizable as a head; it is to the right
- Student how big is the hello big?
Bugscope Team you can see from the micron bar that it is likely about 100 microns long
- Student is the hello bug the type of mite that you find in matressess and carpets?
Bugscope Team no those are dustmites; these are mites that infest insects
- Student how big is the hello bug?
Bugscope Team about 100 to 150 micrometers (microns) long
- Student Does it have little hairs on its legs/arms
Bugscope Team yes it does -- those are sensory
- Student Is it upside down?
Bugscope Team yes it is!
- Bugscope Team now you have a better perspective
- Student so its like a parasite?
Bugscope Team yes it is!
- Student What are all of the pointy things?
Bugscope Team those are sensory setae on the earwig -- they help it feel, smell, taste its environment
- Student Where is the hello bug?
Bugscope Team it is on the 'neck' of the earwig
- Student What is at the top and bottom of the image?
Bugscope Team that is the exoskeleton of the earwig
- Student What can you find out by observing these creatures?
Bugscope Team we see how they attach, and we try to get an idea of how they feed
- Student What is the bug hang
Bugscope Team it is attached to a female earwig
- Teacher livma would like to control the scope when possible
Bugscope Team Livma is the supreme ruler now
- 8:24am
- Student What other specimens does it feed on?
Bugscope Team many idfferent kinds of insects, but we often find them on earwigs
- Student live
- Student so its a mite on an insect
Bugscope Team yes it is!
- Student What kind of climate does it lik=ve in
Bugscope Team all temperate climates, not in Antartica as far as I know
- Student what is that?
Bugscope Team this is the tongue of a housefly
- Student what is above the insect?
- Student do you look at live creatures under the microscope?
Bugscope Team we can, but usually not with the scanning electron microscope
- Student Why does the tongue look like a brain?...
- Student where is the head
Bugscope Team this is the head, but we are so close it is hard to tell
- Student why would you want to!!
- Student What's that white stuff?
Bugscope Team that is where the specimen is charging up with electrons from the electron beam that is hitting it
- Student How did you get the tongue out of the housefly?
Bugscope Team it is still there, and it is external, so it is always sticking out
- Student can we zoom in more?
Bugscope Team yes you can, whoever is driving
- Student external tounge? that sounds nasty
- Student what are the white parts
- Student How does the microscope work?
Bugscope Team the samples are in a vacuum chamber, and we beam electrons at them in lines that add up to the images we see now
- Student Is the surrounding of the insect its body or is it another specimen
Bugscope Team not sure what you mean
- Student how big is the tongue?
Bugscope Team you can use the scalebar to the lower left to estimate the size of the tongue
- Student Why are there a bunch of little lines on the tongue? It looks dried out
Bugscope Team it is exactly as you said -- dried out
- 8:30am
- Student Why does the tongue look like a brain?...
Bugscope Team it is a sponging mouthpart, and it has saliva on it, usually
- Student How many electrons go through the creature?
Bugscope Team millions hit it, but none go all the way through
- Student What is surrounding the tongue?
Bugscope Team there are setae, or insect hairs, all around it. They help tell the insect when it is touching something
- Student what are the spines around the tongue area?
Bugscope Team some of those, in the background are actually on the antennae, and some are sensory setae near the mouth
- Teacher emily would like control of the scope
Bugscope Team she has control
- Student why did you decide to study the tongue?
Bugscope Team we just made it into a preset because you rarely see it like that
- Student the tongue looks like an ameba
- Student Or is it just sensory?
- Student do they ever lick anything with their tongue? or is it just there?
Bugscope Team the tongue can kind of lap up the liquid food they eat. They also do spit a little on their food to help break it down into a more liquid state. Our saliva kind of does the same thing
- Student does the insect ever burn when they are charged with electrons?
Bugscope Team not usually, but I have seen other things in the microscope actually bubble like it is boiling
- Student How does it eat?
Bugscope Team it sponges up its food and sucks it in as a liquid
- Student Are the hairs some sort of protection?
Bugscope Team because insects have an exoskeleton, they do not have skin with nerve endings in it; they need to have sensory setae that project through the exoskeleton -- the shell, or like a suit or armor -- in order to sense their environment
- Student What is underneath the fly?
- Student like what?
- Student Is it on a nest?
Bugscope Team no it is on carbon doublestick tape; is that what you meant?
- Student What does it eat?
Bugscope Team usually sweet liquids; things it has dissolved with its saliva
- Student Why is the tongue on the outside?
Bugscope Team it is really a proboscis, like an elephant's trunk, so it is most useful on the outside
- Student can the fly taste things?
Bugscope Team i think it can. They prefer sugary foods.
- Student why cant we see the almost scaly eyes on this fly?
Bugscope Team you can if you drive and take the mag up
- Student What is a setae?
Bugscope Team they are the hairs we see on insects. You pronounce it see-tee. One hair is a seta (see-tah)
- Student oh
- 8:35am
- Student Do you look at all specimens on top of carbon double stick tape?
Bugscope Team sometimes we use superglue or just silver paint to hold them down
- Student What are those lines on top of the speciman?
Bugscope Team sorry not sure
- Student why silver paint?
- Student Why are the eyes so much bigger than its tongue?
Bugscope Team they heavily rely on their eyes to survive. They are flying insects and they also need to be able to evade their predators, like humans
- Student What is the bird shaped thing on the top of the screen?
Bugscope Team that was one of the bases of the antenna
- Bugscope Team you can see scales from another insect all over the fly
- Student what do flies use antennas for?
- Bugscope Team that is because the fly was collected with other insects like moths and butterflies
- Student Is it hair or fur?
Bugscope Team what looks like hair in insects is called setae
- Student Do you put the specimens on slides to observe them?
- Student what part is that?
- Student What is coming out of the legs?
Bugscope Team at the tips of the legs are four or five tarsi, and at the end are the claws
- Teacher ria would like to try using the scope
Bugscope Team ria has control
- Student Does it have claws?
Bugscope Team yes it does
- Student what is that?
Bugscope Team this is the moth, and it is charging up badly with electrons
- Student Are the hairlike things on the right also setae?
Bugscope Team yes they are
- Student is it a male or female?
- Student What does the setae do for the fly?
Bugscope Team they can help the fly sense what is going on around it. Depending on the type of setae, they can be used for sense of touch, taste/smell, navigating the wind currents, temperature changes, etc. Their exoskeleton isn't sensitive like our skin, so they need those hairs to help them
- Student What does the speciman use the claws for?
Bugscope Team to hold onto things. They are like hands to us
- Student Why is it hairy?
- Student How small is this bug?
- Bugscope Team scales, which you find on moths, butterflies, silverfish, mosquitoes, and few other insects, are modified setae, and one thing they do is help the insect escape from spiderwebs
- Student Why is there so many setae on this insect?
- Student How strong is it?
- 8:40am
- Student You said you get secondary electrons back what are those?
Bugscope Team those are the electrons that the primary electrons (the electron beam that is impinging on the sample) knock loose from the surface of the sample
- Student What type of insect are we looking at?
Bugscope Team this is part of a moth
- Student How do the secondary electrons pro
- Student why did you start looking at bugs under the microscope?
- Student ject an image
- Student do you only look at bugs and insects?
Bugscope Team no we look at all kinds of things, from geological samples to food to silicon structures
- Student When did you first get interested in bugs? why are you interested in them?
- Student How strong is the moth? and what typs of thing does it hold?
- Student what type of bugs do you study the most?
Bugscope Team i think we see beetles and flies the most
- Student How do secondary electrons project an image?
Bugscope Team they are collected by a secondary electron detector as a certain magnitude of signal at a specific time and location on the sample
- Student are bugs your favorite?
Bugscope Team we like them because they are so interesting
- Teacher ace would like control
Bugscope Team ace is the supreme ruler
- Student So if an image appears lighter than others that means it has absorbed more electrons?
Bugscope Team that is exactly right
- Student Have you ever looked at an atom before?
Bugscope Team we see them using the atomic force microscope, not with this 'scope
- Student What bug is your favorite bug to study?
Bugscope Team i like bees. They have stingers and sometimes you can find pollen on them
- Student oh yeah guys, i rule :)
- Student How powerful is your scope?
Bugscope Team this can get 2 nanometer resolution
- Student what is the pointy thing?
Bugscope Team that is a bee stinger
- 8:45am
- Student What is 2 nanometer resolution?
- Student How big is the microscope? What does it look like?
- Student What's that pointy thing? Is it a stinger?
Bugscope Team yes it is!
- Student what is their hair used for?
Bugscope Team the hair is multisensory: hot/cold, smell, touch, proprioception
- Student Does studying insects help with our daily life?
- Student has the stinger ever stung anyone or anything?
Bugscope Team it looks like it has -- it is even broken a bit, at the tip
- Student A housefly has stingers?
Bugscope Team no this is a honeybee
- Student What insect are we looking at now?
Bugscope Team this is a honeybee
- Student What college major did you take to get into microscopic biology?
- Student What is the meaning of proprioception?
Bugscope Team it is self sensing; insects have setae or bristles that help them feel when their limbs are overextended, for example
- Student is stinging instinctual for a bee or is it a conscious choice?
- Student is this your most powerful microscope?
- Student how did you kill the bugs?
Bugscope Team probably most died naturally, but otherwise we usually freeze them
- Student What is 2 nanometer resolution?
Bugscope Team visible light is between 380-740 nm
- Student How powerful is this microscope compared to other similar ones?
- Teacher DMK would like to try using the scope
Bugscope Team DMK has control!
- Student What is the part of the honeybee behind and above the stinger?
Bugscope Team that is hard to see, but it is the rest of the body -- the thorax, and the head is above
- Student Do you study butterflies?
Bugscope Team we don't really study insects, ourselves, but we help people who do study them
- Student do you ever look at spiders?
Bugscope Team yes we do
- Student It looks like the stinger is cracking...can that fall off without stinging someone?
Bugscope Team it could break off; it actually has sliding portions adjacent to each other
- Student what kind of spiders?
- Student wha are the dents on the right?
Bugscope Team those are part of the carbon tape the insects are sitting on
- Student What does the microscope look like? Is it really big?
Bugscope Team it is like a large desk with a tall column at one end; there is a photo on the Bugscope website
- Student What is the smallest bug you've studied?
Bugscope Team probably a mite
- 8:51am
- Student Can you freeze a spider and bring it back to life in the future?
- Student How much electricity does it take to power this microscope?
Bugscope Team it uses 220-V power, and that is transformed to as much as 30 kV -- 30,000 volts
- Student What are the layers at the bottom of the stinger?
Bugscope Team those are part of the abdomen. Without the layers it wouldn't be able to bend
- Student why couldnt you just temporarily put the specimens to sleep instead of killing them like they do with humans during surgery?
- Student How big is the average mite?
Bugscope Team probably 150 microns
- Student is this your most powerful microscope?
Bugscope Team no we have others
- Student Is stinging an instinct or a conscious choice?
Bugscope Team it is conscious
- Student Thank you so much for answering our questions! It was really interesting!
- Student bye guys, this was really cool!
- Student goodbye. that was very interesting :) have a nice day
- Student Can you freeze a spider while it is alive?
Bugscope Team yes. that is often the best way to freeze an insect as well
Bugscope Team kill, not freeze I mean
- Student Thanks for answring our questions about these specimens Bye!
- Student Thanks for talking to us and introducing us to this. Bye!
- Student Thanks for everything! This was really cool and fun!
- Student what is inside the layers, right before the stinger?
Bugscope Team that is where the venom gland is, for one thing; the whole thing is the abdomen, like a stomach
- Student ace says thanks!
Bugscope Team Thank you, Ace, and Livma
- Student thanks for allowing us to use the microscope and answer all of our questions! Bye!
- Bugscope Team Thank You, Everyone!
- Bugscope Team thank you!
- Bugscope Team https://bugscope.beckman.illinois.edu/members/2012-061
- Bugscope Team this below is your member page for today's session
- Student Bye! Thanks, this was really interesting!
Bugscope Team Bye! Thank you!
- Student Okay, alright this was really cool. Thanks so much for answering out questions!
Bugscope Team Thank You, Ria!
- Teacher thank you! they really enjoyed this experience
- 8:56am
- Bugscope Team honeybees and other bees are exceptional insects in that they have these branched setae
- Student what are the circle dents
Bugscope Team those are crayters in the doublestick carbon tape
- Bugscope Team haha 'craters'
- Student goodbye thank you!!
Bugscope Team Thank You, DMK!
- Student Thanks so much! This was cool what are the dents though?
Bugscope Team Thank You, Power Rangers
- Student is this still the bee?
Bugscope Team this is at the edge of the bee -- we can still see some of the setae, to the left and above, and below
- Bugscope Team we are shutting down unless someone is still there working...
