• New Edition of
    Outreach
    Schools, museums, libraries, community centers and other public venues in over 75 countries— last week, the entire planet was firing spikes in honor of the brain during Brain Awareness Week 2024! An annual event organized and partly funded by Dana Foundation and International Brain Research Organization (IBRO), it’s the biggest joint scientific outreach in […]
  • Identifying Bird Songs
    Education
    Hi, I’m Zach Robinson. I’m a senior in Computer Science Engineering at the University of Michigan. I’m working on the Songbird Identification System. This is an ongoing project that was started in January 2017 and will continue development throughout the year. Thus far we have developed an initial classifier model using machine learning, setup a […]
  • Young Neurofencer Wins Washington Science Fair (2nd Year in a Row) Using SpikerBox
    Experiment
    Swift and agile musclework and bladework is all you need to be a good fencer. Or is it? As it turns out thanks to Supriya Nair, an eighth-grader from Redmond, WA, the brain and heart have their fair share in it too! The young scientist’s research project on neurofencing just won her yet another first place […]
  • New Peer-Reviewed Paper on Fish Play Behavior (Classroom-Friendly Experiment!)
    Education
    Cats and dogs aren’t the only pets fond of chasing things that run away from them. Aquarium fish do it too, as shown in our new peer-reviewed paper that came out just last week in the “Animals” journal! Out of 66 fish species observed, nearly 90% showed interest in or set out to chase moving […]
  • Back to the Fun-gi: What Mushroom Action Potentials Have Taught Us
    Fellowship
    — Written by Luka Caric, Elsa Fedrigolli & Tom DesRosiers — Prepare yourselves for another round of mushroom-tastic journey as we delve into the captivating world of electrical potentials in mushrooms. Join us as we unfold the shocking truths, sprinkle in some mushroom humor, and discover the electrifying mysteries hidden within these fantastic fungi! In our quest […]
  • Backyard Brains Internship Fellowship 2017
    Fellowship
    • February 7, 2017
    • by Greg
    Call for Undergraduates in Biology or Engineering Fields Do you have an interest in neuroscience? Do you like squids or dragonflies? Electrical, Mechanical or Computer engineering? Want to develop your own experiments and publish your results?  Learn to communicate with the public?  Maybe even all of the above?  Then you’re in luck! The Backyard Brains Summer Research […]
  • Is It Actually My Choice To Not Title This Post?
    Fellowship
    Is It Actually My Choice To Not Title This Post? Looking doubtful.   Since last I wrote about the “Free Will” project, I have increased the volume of data I have to work with and I have organized it into an intuitive MATLAB database for efficient manipulation via a set of functions for monte carlo analysis, spectrogram generation, […]
  • [Summer’16 Internship] Neuroscience of Grasshopper Jumps: Preliminary data
    Education
    • July 11, 2016
    • by Greg
    After trials and errors, the electrophysiology setup is ready to collect usable data. I have updated the current version of the protocol and setup on the instructions tab. For housekeeping, I give each grasshopper that participates in the experiments a name in the format of [day][month][letter indicating order]. For example, a grasshopper whose DCMDs are recorded […]
  • Finalizing a No-Harm, Dragonfly Visual Neuron Recording Prep
    Education
    Welp, it’s my last day of work here at Backyard Brains! It’s been a fun 11 weeks with my fellow interns, but all things must end. Last week we wrapped up all the TED filming for our mini series episodes. I had a great time, and I’m really looking forward to seeing the final result.  The […]
  • Our New Book
    Education
    We almost ran out of pens at the world’s biggest neuroscience conference! This year’s Society for Neuroscience (SfN) was the first in-person meeting since 2019. And we’re really happy that it happened. Firstly, we’ve so missed the nerdy vibes of sci-comm bustle. Secondly, taking a stroll under palms in sunny San Diego feels really nice […]
  • Prototyping our Low-Cost, Songbird Identifier
    Education
    Hey, Zach here with another songbird identifier update! Since the last post, I have been busy testing the prototype device by taking bird recordings in various locations. After this week I will be taking a short break before resuming work on the project with the rest of the songbird team in the coming semester. Right […]
  • BYB's Odd Consciousness Detector
    Education
    • June 15, 2015
    • by Greg
    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 […]