As of this Monday, June 6 2016, we have made neuroscience history by selling our 10,000th Neuron Spikerbox!  You can see the count for yourself at our open finance page. We would like to thank all of our customers so far for their support through the years.  Without you, we couldn’t bring first time spikes to […]

Welcome to the cockroach world!     My work for these five weeks was to develop a novel low-cost system to study the circadian rhythm of cockroaches. I’m working with my beautiful friends discoid cockroaches (B. discoidalis).     Circadian rhythms are physical, mental, and behavioral changes that follow a roughly 24-hour cycle, responding primarily to light and darkness in an […]

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 […]

Name: Katelyn Rowley School: University of Michigan (Go Blue!) Major: Biomedical Engineering Hobbies: Running (I’ve run a half marathon and I hope to run a full one someday!), journaling, trying new restaurants in Ann Arbor, being outdoors, finding new music to listen to (Florence and the Machines, Bon Iver, classic rock, you name it) What’s up interwebz? When I […]

Welcome! This is Kylie Smith, a Michigan State University undergraduate writing to you from a basement in Ann Arbor. I am studying behavioral neuroscience and cognition at MSU and have been fortunate enough to have landed an internship with the one and only Backyard Brains for the summer. I am working on The Consciousness Detector […]

Coming soon to a backyard near you. At least, that’s the idea. We’re sure the technology will catch up if we give it enough prodding and throw an intern or two its way. And hey if not? There’s still lasers, sounds like a win/win to me. Wait we don’t get lasers either? This is really going […]

Last year, we launched our “human human interface” allowing a connection between complete strangers to be built artificially, bypassing chance. But there are those lucky people who don’t need a mechano-electrical connection, who say they simply “feel something” in the presence of another. Being in the same room together, subjects report feeling “warmer,” that there is […]

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 […]

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 […]

In March 2014 we went to Mexico’s first Maker Faire, invited by Amor Muñoz, a Mexican Textile and Electronic artist, who we met at Chile’s Santiago MakerFaire in November 2013. The Mexico MakerFaire took place in Oaxaca, a place known for traditional crafts, pero ahora se esta transformando en un lugar de “Nuevos-Makers” de diseño, […]

If you came by our booth at the Society for Neuroscience meeting last November in San Diego, perhaps you saw (and participated in) our newest experiment – the “human-human-interface.” When one person contracts their muscles, we use our EMG SpikerShield amplifier paired with an Arduino to cause a partner’s muscles to contract as well. Our […]

We are big believers in the power of 3D printing to allow labs and scientists to share their inventions around the world, making experiments easier and scientific progress faster. We bought our first MakerBot in April of 2012, and our current “Fleet” of 3D printers at Backyard Brains now numbers three (two MakerBot Replicator Originals […]