• SJSU Graduating Seniors Compete for Best Poster Award in Neuroscience Lab
    Education
    Dr. Katie Wilkinson, a Neurophysiologist from San Jose State University, worked with her seniors to incorporate neuroscience and Backyard Brains equipment into their labs. She recently tweeted about her students and the very first Neurophysiology Lab Best Poster Award that they were competing against each other for, posters and projects which used BYB equipment to […]
  • Project Idea: Can you beat Terry Crews' Garage full of Muscle Powered Instruments?
    Education
    We can’t help you get as strong as Terry, but we can teach you the tech to build this yourself! Following the launch of our Brain-Music Interface experiment trilogy, we thought it was appropriate to revisit this classic… While we have our suspicions that there may be a bit more stimulation rather than control going on in […]
  • The Fantastic Muscle Music Machine Experiment Trilogy
    Education
    Music is a passion, an art, a science, but maybe most importantly… music is fun! Variations of “electronic instruments” can be traced back as early as the late 1700s, but it is no exaggeration to say that the biggest breakthrough was the invention of Synthesizers in the 1950s. This marriage of music and electrical engineering […]
  • Intracellular recording in Snails Midterm Update - Juan Ferrada
    Education
    • May 8, 2018
    • by Greg
    Hi! Juan Ferrada here from the University of Santiago again to give you an update on my project with Backyard Brains. Main Project – Single unit recording from Snail Neurons First mission – Isolate the Neurons As we spoke of a month ago, we are trying to record the individual neurons of the giant pacemaker cells of […]
  • BRAINDING Project Commences with First Working Prototype
    Biz
    • March 23, 2017
    • by Greg
    Longtime Backyard Brains fans may recognize Pablo Guerra in the majority of our human interface videos. When not acting for Backyard Brains, Pablo Works as Electronic Music Artist, specifically, modifying electronic music instruments in a discipline called “Circuit Bending.” Circuit bending or also called “toy hacking” is the art of corrupting a musical toy from […]
  • Are you conscious? Now with our consciousness detector, you can find out!
    Experiment
    • August 7, 2015
    • by Greg
    Hello again! This is the mind-reader reporting to you with updates on my project. I have had quite the scientific adventure since last sharing my research so sit down, grab your tea (or coffee or pop or kool-aide – I don’t judge) and prepare for a rollercoaster. With no success from LED oddball tasks, I moved […]
  • Investigating Cockroach Vision: An Intern Project by U of M Undergrad Greg M.
    Experiment
    My name is Greg McMurtry. I am a sophomore at the University of Michigan studying mechanical engineering, and I have been working with Backyard Brains for the past four months. Currently, I am working with cockroaches and their descending contralateral movement detector “DCMD” neuron. Current research suggests that this neuron is correlated with the detection […]
  • Spotlight: Measuring Reflexes Using the EMG Reaction Timer!
    Education
    Meet the EMG Reaction Timer! The EMG Reaction Timer will settle once and for all who has the fastest draw in the west… or you can use it to perform neuroscience experiments, in the home or classroom, exploring how we respond to different kinds of stimuli! The Reaction Timer works with our EMG SpikerBox and Spike […]
  • BYB Summer Camp Presents: Scorpions?! Why'd it have to be scorpions!? - A Screenplay by Dylan the Scorpion King
    Experiment
    A scorpion by any other name Greetings!  My name’s Dylan, and I’m interning at a company that loves cockroaches here in the land of the Wolverines, where I’m proud to represent Michigan State University’s burgeoning undergraduate neuroscience program. My project involves an examination of scorpion neuroscience, particularly the electrophysiology of their nervous system, and I’m working […]