Connected on 2010-04-08 11:30:00
from , ,
- 11:16 am
- Bugscope TeamPresets are done, session is unlocked. We are ready to go!
- 11:31 am
- Bugscope TeamHi Diane
- Bugscope TeamHi Diane!
- 11:38 am
- Bugscope TeamHi chillen!
- Bugscope TeamGood morning Ms. Hillen!
- Bugscope TeamWelcome back to Bugscope!
- TeacherHello again. What are we looking at?
Bugscope Teamthis is a flea from a dog that an entomologist collected
- 11:43 am
- TeacherHelp! I am stuck
Bugscope TeamYou can select a preset to quickly jump back to somewhere interesting
- Bugscope Teamsorry I am stuck on the phone
- Bugscope TeamHi Leilei!
- Bugscope TeamHi Diane!
- Bugscope TeamHi Diane!
- Bugscope Teamhaha
- TeacherMy computer says it is still downloading the picture
- Bugscope TeamSo you're not seeing any new images coming through?
- 11:48 am
- Bugscope TeamMs Hillen these are the tiny sticky hairs, called tenent setae, that allow insects to cling to surfaces like walls..
- TeacherWe can't see it
- Bugscope Teamwe can't see it either, just a sec
- TeacherIt's still downloading
- Bugscope TeamYou can try hitting F5 which will reload the page. That may help resolve it
- Bugscope Teamwow
- Bugscope Teamin the meantime because it has been driving away, we took you to a new preset.
- Bugscope Teamcan we call to help you with this?
- Bugscope Teamnow we're back on the tenent setae
- Bugscope TeamThese are tenent setae which allow the insect to walk on vertical surfaces
- Bugscope Teamif you take the magnification down you can see where you are
- Bugscope Teamthey act like suction cups or velcro
- TeacherNo thank you. The F5 worked.
- Bugscope Teamcool!
- Bugscope Teamif you click the mag down again, you will see more...
- TeacherHow do you know if a ladybug is female or male?
Bugscope Teamwith some insects, like ladybugs, it is hard to tell the gender from outside -- the things that tell us if it is male or female are on the inside of the exoskeleton
- Bugscope TeamGeckos have something similar
- Bugscope Teamnow we can see one of the claws, on one of the six legs/arms
- 11:53 am
- Bugscope Teamand you can see the sticky pad, called the pulvillus, with those tiny hairs on it
- Bugscope TeamAlthough with geckos the 'hairs' are much much smaller which allows them to have a very cool dry adhesion technique, not requiring any glue. It's so useful that researchers are trying to copy it -- it's reusable and can hold an incredible amount of weight
- Bugscope Teamwith flies you can sometimes tell if they are male or female because female eyes are far apart and male eyes are close together
- Bugscope Teamoccasionally the markings on the outside are different between genders as well
- TeacherCan you please explain what we are looking at?
Bugscope Teamthis is one of the palps on a ladybug. The little finger like things are mechanosensory setae, which aid in tasting/smelling. The palps themselves are useful for moving around food in the mouth
- Bugscope Teamthe setae on the palp are chemosensory, and they are like tastebuds on your tongue
- 11:58 am
- Bugscope Teamoops scot is right i meant chemosensory
- Bugscope Teammechanosensory is for movement
- Bugscope TeamNow you can almost see the other palp to the left
- Bugscope Teamwow this is cool
- Bugscope Teamnow we are looking at crochettes on a caterpillar's 'prolegs'
- Bugscope Teamthey are tiny hooks that help the caterpillar climb/walk/cling to surfaces
- Bugscope Teammany caterpillars have silk glands in their heads, and they can make web like a spider, to some extent
- Bugscope Teamthe crochettes may hook over the web
- Bugscope Teamspider legs have some similarities to the prolegs
- Bugscope Teamthe caterpillar has six 'normal' legs like a regular insect, which it is. but it also has extra legs at this stage, called prolegs.
- 12:04 pm
- Bugscope TeamPlease let us know if you have any trouble with driving, or anything. We have had network problems at the University recently, although they are supposed to have been fixed.
- Bugscope Teamthis is the caterpillar's head, and now we can see the six legs, or parts of them, plus the mouthparts and the tiny simple eyes, called stemmata
- 12:09 pm
- Bugscope Teamthis is cool! this is one of the halteres, which Diptera ('two-winged') use to balance the motion of their wings.
- Bugscope Teamthe halteres beat opposite the beat of the wings and counterbalance them
- Bugscope TeamThe haltere looks like a little punching bag in flight, bouncing back and forth against the insect's body. It's purpose is similar to the gyroscopes in an airplane, they help it keep a solid reference so they can fly in a specific path through the air
- Bugscope Teamthe halteres are on the thorax, which is the 'chest' of the insect
- TeacherI've given up on the driving. I"ll try another preset
- Bugscope TeamThey often have very cool-looking structures called hypertrophied mechanoreceptors near the base
- Bugscope Teamhey no problem just let us help when you need it
- Bugscope Teamdriving using the click to drive feature can be tricky because it's one click to drive and one click to stop
- Bugscope Teamdriving using click to center is easier
- Bugscope Teamand of course you can always change the mag, etc.
- TeacherO.K. I'll give it a try
- Bugscope Teamyou are driving a $600,000 scanning electron microscope, and you are brave to do this -- it is not always easy
- 12:14 pm
- Bugscope Teamnow we can see where we were
- Bugscope Teamyou can see the two wings, and the six legs, and the abdomen, which is shrunken, and you can see the head
- Bugscope Teamthe background is sticky carbon tape
- Bugscope Teameverything we see is coated with gold-palladium to make it conductive so the electrons will bounce off of it or run to ground
- Bugscope Teamif you wanted to look at the eye now you could increase the magnification
- Bugscope Teamand you could recenter as necessary once the mag goes up
- Bugscope Teamthis is neat, too!
- Bugscope Teamthese are moth scales
- Bugscope Teamyou feel them as powder when you touch the wings -- they are so small
- Bugscope Teambecause the wings were so big we had to cut them to a smaller size to fit on the microscope stub
- 12:20 pm
- TeacherThank you. Once again we need to go. You guys really know a lot!
- Bugscope TeamThank You!
- Bugscope TeamThank you for using bugscope again Ms. Hillen
- Bugscope TeamDiane please let us know if you would like to drive or anything since Ms Hillen is done.
- Bugscope TeamWe gave you control of the microscope, so you should notice a difference in the layout of your window
- 12:25 pm
- Bugscope TeamDiane! We are going to close down...
- 3:02 pm
