Press

Make covered SpikerBot as a new way for kids to build a creature, wire neural circuits, and learn neuroscience through robot behavior.

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Make invited Alex Hatch to share the Spiker-Man Web Flinger, a Spiker:bit EMG servo project featured with other Volume 96 makers.

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Make: Magazine Volume 96 included the Spiker-Man Web Flinger project, turning forearm EMG muscle signals into a servo-powered web launcher.

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Hackster covered Spiker:bit as a way to turn biological signals into micro:bit-powered body-machine interface projects.

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Hackster previewed SpikerBot, Backyard Brains' neurorobotics platform for building and testing spiking neural network behavior.

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Greg Gage joined Lexus and TED to explore automated vehicle ideas that respond to passenger needs through emotional and physiological sensing.

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Lexus announced concepts from TED Fellows Greg Gage and Sarah Sandman for human-centered automated vehicle design.

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Greg Gage joined TED Radio Hour to talk about plant behavior, electrical signals, and intelligence in living systems.

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Michigan State profiled Greg Gage and Backyard Brains' mission to make neuroscience accessible through hands-on tools.

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The Dana Foundation highlighted Christian Bravo-Rivera, NeuroBoricuas, and hands-on neuroscience education using Backyard Brains tools.

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Greg Gage joined This Is Your Brain for a conversation about DIY neuroscience, classroom experiments, and making real neural signals accessible.

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The Edward Lowe Foundation profiled Backyard Brains' growth as a company bringing hands-on neuroscience tools to classrooms and makers.

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Season 3 of Bill Nye’s latest Netflix show, Bill Nye Saves the World, features a clip of Bill Bye and his correspondent Joanna Hausmann experimenting with a neuroscience experiment made by “Cool Neuro People” (that’s us)!

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In an episode of History Channel’s reboot, “In Search Of,” shost Zachary Quinto visits the Backyard Brains office in Downtown Ann Arbor and experiences the Human-Human Interface, as he and his film crew investigate “Mind Control.”

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Featuring hosts Kari Byron, Grant Imahara, and Tori Belleci, this show educates and entertains as it navigates the world of popular, cutting edge science! Backyard Brains takes a lead role in the pilot episode, available to view on Netflix, which counts down the top “real world super powers” (Spoiler Alert: we win!). Greg Gage and Kari Byron create a Roboroach and then take the Human-Human Interface out for an italian dinner with Grant… hilarity ensues. Also check out this Good Morning America segment where Kari and Tori experiment with the Human-Human Interface in another fine-dining setting.

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Cofounder Tim Marzullo talks BYB History, human-machine-interfaces (Human-Human Interface), and the future of neuroscience education in this podcast which seeks to break down cutting edge neuro-engineering concepts into educational conversations.

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Our CoFounder Tim Marzullo has made several appearances on the Spanish show El Hormiguero," which is a popular science entertainment tv show. On the show, he has performed Human-Human Interface and Roboroach experiments with some of our favorite celebrities, including: Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson, Kevin Hart, and Norman Reedus. He's appeared in a couple of episodes and will likely return again in the future! Check them out here:

El Hominguero: Neuroscience with The Rock!

Greg Gage demoes the Muscle SpikerBox and the Human-Human Interface with Chuck Gaidica of Channel 4 News to help build hype for the 2017 Tech Trek.

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A few of our 2016 research fellows received prize money for their research after entering it into the 2016 Hackaday Prize competition! See if you can pick them out from the list (Hint, Patrick Glover and Dieu My Nguyen are the winning fellows...)

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Greg Gage and the 2014 Summer Research Fellows show off the Roboroach, the Human-Human Interface, and an Optogenetics experiment to Jason Kridern (Beaglebone) and Brian Benchoff (Hackaday).

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In 2014 we were visited by the charming host of Norwegian TV show: Schrodinger's Katt! We performed a Roboroach workshop with her and a group of local kids and explained the principles behind the experiment and the importance of neuroscience education at large! Beware: Much of the episode is in Norwegian!

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Condorito is a Chilean Comic very popular throughout Latin America. The writer visited the MakerSpace where we work to speak with the "Corazon de Chile" Student FIRST robotics team that also works there. When he heard about the RoboRoach, he incorporated elements into the December 2013 issue.

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Two summers ago, we sat down with Emily Anthes at a cafe in Woods Hole, MA, (site of our favorite lab the Marine Biological Laboratory) to chat about the RoboRoach and show her a demo. Her recent book on animal-human interaction, "Frankenstein's Cat," was just released in Spring 2013 and is a nice read on humanity's continually evolving relationship with other creatures of the earth. She writes about our demo in one of her chapters.

NPR interview with author

In January, 2013. Backyard Brains was featured on Sanjay Gupta's show "The Next List" on CNN. See where the SpikerBox is made, how they are used in the classrooms, and a profile of one of the co-founders (the other was down south doing demo's).

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In the summer of 2012, our RoboRoach was featured in the newsstand issue of MAKE Magazine. Word from the editors is we almost made the cover, but we lost out to a cute dog.

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(En Español). In collaboration with Chile's Explora Program and Bioquimica.cl, we visited the Chilean Region of Atacama and taught human muscle physiology to 110 selected high school students over 2 days.

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We are big fans of Science Friday. So it was an honor to have this writeup in Jan 2013. In his article, "Playing Music -- Through a Squid?" Andreas Von Bubnoff asks "What happens if you play music through squid cells?"

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In Dec 2012, Popular Science published an article on our RoboRoach called "How To Build Your Own Cockroach Cyborg". The artist took some liberties with our design, but over all it's a nice teachnial writeup. One day, our roboroach will look this cool.

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Backyard Brains was on the front page of CNN with a piece entitled "On neuroscience and cockroach legs" By Matthew Gannon, in October 2012

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Tim sat down with Robin Miller of Slashdot at the Backyard Brains HQ in Ann Arbor, MI and did a live demo for the slashdot. The result was a slashdot post entitled "Backyard Brains Can Help Satisfy Your Inner Frankenstein". Enjoy.

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Greg Gage sat down with John Stewart of the BBC for a demonstration on the BBC Radio Program "Science in Action" in April 2012. The BYB Segment starts around 6 minutes into the program.

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Ewen Callaway wrote a Nature News Blog about Backyard Brain's effort to bring Optogenetics into the highschool. The post is entilted "Optogenetics on a budget" from Nov 2011.

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A local Ann Arbor Blog, focusing on technology, start-ups, and the arts in SE Michigan, paid a visit to All Hands Active, the Hackerspace and production headquarters of Backyard Brains. Get to know Dana and Josh, founding members of All Hands Active.

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