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Backyard Brains bringing spikes to Maker Faire Detroit this weekend.

Tim — Thu, 29 Jul 2010 16:20:19 +0000

Those of you in the Midwest, bring your families and friends to the Maker Faire at the Henry Ford Museum this weekend (July 31st and August 1st). Backyard Brains will be participating in this nerd paradise. Our exhibit number is 3534. Also, the “silent third” partner of Backyard Brains was recently highlighted by the University of Michigan School of Education for her work with the organization Michigan Future.

Backyard Brains iPhone Application Now Available. You can record your spikes in the field and on the go.

Tim — Thu, 20 May 2010 15:03:20 +0000

The SpikerBox allows you to amplify and listen to spikes in a cheap, portable, and easy way. Using the built-in headphone jack you can also record the spikes from your SpikerBox on a computer, but we all know modern laptops are way too bulky and are beginning to go out of style. What if you want to record and visualize your spikes, but only have your iPhone? Have no fear. You asked; we listened. The Backyard Brains iPhone Application is now available for download from the online App Store. What used to take a room full of equipment you can now fit in your hand. See some real recordings I made below from a cockroach; you don’t have to go to advanced college/graduate school to do this anymore!

Note: to go into the iPhone headphone jack, you need to modify a cable. It’s not too difficult; there needs to be 4.7 kOhm load in between the microphone and ground connections. You can also also order it from us if you don’t want to bust out your soldering iron and begin cutting cables.

Spikes on a Plane Revisited

Tim — Tue, 18 May 2010 20:24:04 +0000

In early March, Backyard Brains made history by doing the first neural recordings on a commercial airline flight. As professional scientists however, we know that experiments should be repeated before conclusions are made. On a flight from Chicago to Kansas City in late April, we again performed the experiment. Before that though, during our layover in Chicago, Greg was debugging some of our equipment at one of the laptop kiosks. I lost a bit of faith in the Homeland Security Department that day, as when we were actively soldering electronic components together at the airport, not one person even asked us what we were doing. Maybe it’s racial profiling, who knows.

Once we got on our plane to Kansas City and reached cruising altitude, we realized we needed to know what the pressure inside the cabin was, so we requested the steward to ask the captain. Here is a link to an audio recording of our inquiry:

Spikes On A Plane Altitude Request

We determined cabin pressure was at 7250 Aviator Units.

Unfortunately, the cockroach leg had begun to dry out, and the neural activity was very noisy. We were skeptical if it was real or not.

Doesn’t look like it. I (Tim) decided to try again on my return flight from Kansas City to Chicago, but I became a victim of my own brazenness. I literally walked through the security with the cockroaches in a clearly visible container in an open cardboard box (rather than in a small box in a shirt pocket, as in the past), and this time they didn’t let me go through. After speaking with the customer liaisons at United Airlines for half an hour, they decided it was up to the pilot captain to make the final call whether to let the cockroaches on board or not. I made an imprassioned plea to the captain (offering an honorary Ph.D. in exchange for honorary wings). He was good-spirited about it, and said “in the name of science education,” he would let me keep my cockroaches, but he made me promise to not do “spikes on a plane” on his airship (he was worried about escaped cockroaches getting into the wiring on the plane, which evidently has happened before). The liaisons double taped up the container just to be sure…

In the future, we’ll have to put the leg on the SpikerBox BEFORE we get into the airport. But we thank the good folks at United and Delta airlines for being such good sports about the whole thing.

Working Prototype of Ganglionizer unveiled

Tim — Mon, 15 Mar 2010 15:35:28 +0000

You’ve heard us say we were working on it. An idea, a dream, a fully portable electrophysiology rig with built-in amplifier, dissection scope, and manipulator for sophisticated experiments on the central nervous system. Impossible. But wait…maybe not? Ladies and Gentleman….the Ganglionizer.

ByB Acquires New Microscope

Tim — Thu, 20 Aug 2009 23:04:01 +0000

We have good versions of our Ganglionizer (micromanipulator) and SpikerBox (amplifier), but the missing component for in vivo ganglia experiments is an inexpensive microscope. ByB saved its lunch money and recently purchased a 30X dissection scope for $60 from Benz Microscopy. Having no background in optics, ByB is rolling up its sleeves and reverse engineering a dissection scope. First step, take one apart and see how it works.

Michael Benz, the third generation owner of Benz Microscope (a very cool business in south Ann Arbor), is enthusiastically helping us design our own microscopes by letting us purchase some raw optics components from his massive workshop. Thanks Michael!

ByB recipient of Kauffman Award

Tim — Fri, 07 Aug 2009 16:51:30 +0000

Tim Marzullo, co-founder, received a phone call last week (while on his bike) that he will be funded for a year to grow Backyard Brains. Thanks to the Kauffman Foundation and the Michigan New Economy Initiative for believing in us!