Connected on 2013-06-03 09:00:00 from Genesee, Michigan, United States
- 7:23am
- Bugscope Team sample is coating and will be in the 'scope shortly
- 7:32am
- Bugscope Team sample is pumping down
- 7:42am
- 7:49am
- 7:54am
- 8:01am
- Bugscope Team almost done with presets!
- 8:06am
- Bugscope Team we are ready to roll
- 8:14am
- Bugscope Team ladybug head
- Bugscope Team be right back!
- 8:24am
- Bugscope Team alright!
- 8:30am
- 8:36am
- 8:46am
- 8:53am
- 8:58am
- Bugscope Team welcome to Bugscope!
- Bugscope Team we're driving around, looking at your sample
- Bugscope Team this is a leafhopper
- Teacher hi we are finally on
- Bugscope Team super cool
- Bugscope Team you have control of the microscope
- Bugscope Team and you can use the controls above the image...
- Bugscope Team leafhoppers are true bugs, so they have piercing sucking mouthparts
- Bugscope Team spider spinnerets
- Bugscope Team unfortunately the spider's arms are covering its face
- Teacher I am going to let the kids use the computer to explore; we are watching on a screen in o ur class
- Bugscope Team sounds great!
- Bugscope Team please let us know when you have questions about anything
- 9:04am
- Bugscope Team spider abdomen
- Bugscope Team this is the cephalothorax
- Bugscope Team the head and the thorax are fused in spiders, unlike insects, in which they are separate
- Bugscope Team there's a pollen grain with a face
- Bugscope Team because the specimen had dried a bit in the 'scope, the preset took us to a place near but not on the place we had originally locked in
- Bugscope Team it shows you we're doing live imaging...
- Bugscope Team this is all on a large bumblebee
- Bugscope Team several different kinds of pollen
- Bugscope Team bees have branched setae -- at least some of the setae (the hairs, or bristles) are branched
- 9:09am
- Teacher do we see any part of the bumble bee
Bugscope Team we're up very close on one of the tarsi -- one of the forearm joints
- Bugscope Team the bumblebee is so large that we cannot see all of it at low magnification
- Teacher what are the round parts?
Bugscope Team all the little balls are pollens
- Bugscope Team now we can see the abdomen, on the right
- Bugscope Team the stinger is either inside or missing
- Bugscope Team this is the roly poly's head
- Bugscope Team we mounted it upside down because we couldn't tell which end was which
- 9:14am
- Teacher What is that?
Bugscope Team we're looking at the mouth, but it is hard to tell what is what
- Teacher What are the two slits?
- Bugscope Team it is often difficult to see how insect and arthropod mouths work
- Bugscope Team not entirely sure how it's mouth works
- Bugscope Team I think the triangular part is a mandible, which opens side to side
- Bugscope Team like, right in the middle there above the horizontal slit
- Bugscope Team these are butterfly scales, from a wing
- Bugscope Team they have silver paint on them
- Bugscope Team scales are what makes the wings feel silky when you rub them, and they fall off easily -- they are so fine that to us they seem like powder
- 9:19am
- Bugscope Team the scales on insects like butterflies, moths, silverfish, and mosquitoes protect those insects from getting caught in spiderwebs
- Bugscope Team they are actually modified setae, like all of the tiny hairs (setae) we have been seeing
- Teacher what are the clump like things on the scales?
Bugscope Team those are bits of dried silver paint
- Bugscope Team the ridges reflect light in colors that we may not see but are apparent to other insects that see in UV light, for example
- Bugscope Team when we make the samples we help stick them down and also make them conductive using silver paint
- Bugscope Team scales can produce structural colors, just from their shape and the ridges we see; they can also produce colors that are due to pigments in the latticework we see now
- Teacher how much does a microscope like this cost?
Bugscope Team this one that you are using costs around $600,000
- Teacher WOW! thanks for letting us use it
- Bugscope Team the ridges we see now are about 2 to 2.5 microns or micrometers apart
- Bugscope Team some of the features you see -- the smallest features -- are on the nanoscale
- Teacher So, what kind of surprises did you find when you began looking so closelyu at insects?
- 9:25am
- Bugscope Team if you go to the brochosome presets, you can see nanoparticles produced by leafhoppers
- Teacher And, because we don't know our metrics very well...how many microns would there be in a centimeter?
- Bugscope Team we were surprised that there were sometimes bugs living on other bugs- we saw mites living on earwigs
- Bugscope Team there are 10,000 micrometers in a centimeter
- Bugscope Team these are about 400 nanometers in diameter
- Bugscope Team they are produced only by leafhoppers
- Bugscope Team the wavelengths of visible light go from about 400 to about 700 nanometers, so we are looking at something that is as small as the wavelength of violet light
- Teacher why are these produced?
Bugscope Team we think they help protect their eggs, to keep them moist.
- Bugscope Team this leafhopper rubbed them all over her or himself
- Bugscope Team leafhoppers have what is called a self-anointing behavior
- 9:30am
- Teacher What do you do with all the information you find?
Bugscope Team we take images of stuff we think is cool, and we let people like our Bugscope participants know what we have found
- Bugscope Team when the entomologists come in to use the microscope we ask them lots of questions
- Teacher So, have you ever used the equipment to esamine something in the human body like a red blood cell or white blood cell or muscle cells?
Bugscope Team yes we have. We have even seen cells that help fight cancer
Bugscope Team because they are softer than insects, we have to fix them and then dry them in a special way before putting them in the microscope
- Bugscope Team we work with researchers in all disciplines; when we do Bugscope it is just kind of fun for us
- Bugscope Team the samples go into a vacuum when we use the electron microscope
- Teacher Are the cells that fight cancer natural or do they develop because of medicine?
Bugscope Team i think they were natural cells
- Bugscope Team last week we took images of viruses that infect Archaea -- the lifeform that was once thought to be a form of bacteria, once called Archaebacteria
- Teacher Have you ever seen a cancer cell in an insect?
Bugscope Team no. we don't see too many diseased insects. Or at least none that we know were diseased.
- Bugscope Team we use other microscopes as well; there are about thirty different types of microscopes and imaging systems down here
- Teacher Is there a reason the bacteria we are looking at are shaped like a ball?
- Bugscope Team to look at the Archaea viruses we used a transmission electron microscope
- Teacher Is there a reason why the bacteria are clumped together? Are they sticky?
- Bugscope Team some bacteria are shaped like a ball, some more like elongated rods, and some are spiral
- 9:35am
- Bugscope Team these are not bacteria, though; these are brochosomes, which are nanoparticles produced in the Malpighian tubules of leafhoppers
- Teacher Are the dark spots that we see holes or just a darker color on the bacteria?
- Bugscope Team bacteria are longer and a bit larger
- Bugscope Team those are actual holes
- Teacher So...maybe we are having trouble thinking about what a nanoparticle is...
- Bugscope Team a nanoparticle is a particle or tiny speck of something that is on the nano scale; thus it is less than a micrometer in diameter
- Bugscope Team your DNA is nano-sized
- Bugscope Team a micrometer, or micron, is 1000 nanometers
- Bugscope Team silverfish are covered in scales, and that is what gives them their silver color
- Bugscope Team this is a really cool view
- Bugscope Team there are tiny 'rocks' on the scales
- 9:40am
- Teacher why do the scales have stripes
Bugscope Team the stripes help make them a bit less flexible -- a bit more rigid, like a Ruffles potato chip
- Bugscope Team but the periodicity of the stripes makes them reflect different colors of light
- Teacher We really have been so lucky to see the things you have provided for us...thank youo so so much for allowing us to glimpse into the world of nanotechnology and bugs up close and personal!
- Bugscope Team glad you could join us this morning!
- Bugscope Team Thank You for connecting with us today! I am sorry I missed your calls, earlier, and am very happy you were able to work with us!
- Bugscope Team See you!
