At the recent MAKER faire in Detroit, editor-in-chief of MAKE Magazine, Mark Frauenfelder, selected us as his favorite Makers on Boing-Boing. Thanks Mark! See below for some budding neuroscientists.

Finally, we are collaborating with the Fund Science folks, to allow you, yes you, to contribute to research projects. Wonder when you do those 5K runs for cancer, where the money goes? Here you directly know. Donations to Backyard Brains would go towards paying educators to help develop our lab books and hiring coders to improve and update our iPhone/iPad educational software. A recent article in nature.com speaks about this funky new concept. Don’t worry, rest assured we at Backyard Brains are decidedly poor (not paying ourselves yet); you’re not donating to a company like AIG, which you already did, in a round-about way.

If you are interested in Backyard Brains coming to your student group and teaching about neurons and electrical engineering, don’t hesitate to contact us!

And with the enclosure, which we also provide in the kit.

Here is a picture of our first customer who ordered the bag of parts version. Yes, Luis does have a MakerBot behind him. With such a 3D printer you can build your own enclosure. Unleash the output of your mind and hands, my fellow creatives!

Wrap all exposed wire in electrical tape, cover with heat shrink tubing, and you’re ready to rock! This design splices the left and right audio channels in the microphone input, so if you use this cable to record music, you are only recording in mono.

This of course is our favorite use…

Thus, in a combination of humor and hubris (humbris?), Tim and Greg decided to donate their first SpikerBox board to the museum. We argued passionately to museum registrar Karen Kroslowitz that much as the computer revolution began with simple, homemade, and heartfelt electronics, we were attempting to do the same thing to the “neurorevolution,” and gee, wouldn’t the museum be honored to have our first board signed by us?

Sadly, wetware still is not in vogue at the museum, and we recently received our first board back. Ah well. They’ll come around.

Leaving the museum, Tim spied an old VW bus like his parents used to have in Germany in the 70’s. It’s not an El Camino but it will do. One day.

Thankfully, everything was fully operational battle station, and we spent a good two and a half hours at the editorial offices, doing demos for the staff. Dale Dougherty, the editor and publisher, got to hear his first neuron!

We also browsed their workshop and saw some of the gear that may be familiar to readers of MAKE.

During the weekend, Tim went to the California Academy of Sciences in Golden Gate Park and finally saw some Giant Cockroaches. Oddly, they look simply like giant versions of the Discoid Cockroaches that Backyard Brains uses.

On the last day of the trip, ByB also visited the Exploratorium and had a great chat with Charlie Carlson, senior Biologist. He told us the Exploratorium used to do neurophysiology in the 70’s, but phased it out for new exhibits. Tim and Greg were disheartened, but Charlie explained that he’d love to bring it back, and the introduction of inexpensive, easy-to-use neuroscience (they were using $1000 rigs even in the 70’s) is right in line with the Exploratorium’s mission. To the beginning of a beautiful friendship…

Each of the 12 region types were highlighted by choosing a city and focusing attention on some aspect of life there. Ann Arbor was chosen as the quintessential “Campus and Careers” city, so PBS focused on how Ann Arbor is surviving in a turbulent Michigan economy. Backyard Brains does make a brief cameo in the beginning. Enjoy!

But, a professor in Minnesota wanted one for a “teaching biology” course she was running this past weekend, so it was delivery by then or wait till next Spring! ByB got it out just in time, and we have our fingers crossed for the feedback!

Now on to getting those PCB’s completed….

And quite the crowd came to see Greg demonstrate our prototypes

And, via our newest collaborator and colleague Alex Wiltschko, we officially announced a new iPhone app for recording spikes! Now you don’t even need a computer to do your neuroscience. See Greg showing it off below..

The official Spanish speaking liaison of Backyard Brains, Mrs. Jennifer Trigger Marzullo, talked about the SpikerBox to some of our fellow Neuroscientists from Mexico and Argentina. “¡Lo hacemos en el garaje!”

Backyard Brains was also proud to announce its first sale! Gina Poe, faculty member at the University of Michigan and a thesis committee member from Tim’s PhD dissertation, gave us a down payment on the first SpikerBox. Thanks Gina! We’re on it!

Of course, with so many of our hero neuroscientists present, Backyard Brains recruited hard. We tried unsuccessfully to convince George Paxinos, author of famed Rat Atlas in Sterotaxic Coordinates, to make a new book on the cockroach. He was kind enough, though, to let us take a picture with him.

And, to Tim’s delight, ByB ran into Eberhard Fetz. One could quite easily argue Tim’s whole PhD Dissertation was based on work done by Professor Fetz. Operant Conditioning of Unit Activity? Done in 1969, better than you. Investigation of LFPs and spikes in Motor Cortex? Done in 1996, better than you. Simultaneous Recording and Stimulation for Closed-Loop Control? Done in 2008, better than you. Even Backyard Brain’s new use of a smartphone as a data acquisition device? Done in 2006, better than you.

But, with a huge smile and a sigh of relief on our parts, Professor Fetz liked the SpikerBox and iPhone app and gave us a thumbs up. Keep us sharp Eb!

Now back to work and getting to production!