• The Taste Preferences of Fruit Flies
    Education
    Hello everyone! It’s a been over a month since my project began on studying the diet and attempting taste manipulation of the Drosophila melanogaster. Before my experiments could begin I faced many software and hardware issues. The flyPAD itself is an extremely thin 0.6mm PCB board so every slight bend of it can result in […]
  • Optogenetics with the FlyPad
    Education
    Hey everyone! My name is Spencer and I just finished my freshman year at Dalhousie University in Halifax, Canada (yes, where the maple syrup and igloos are). I’ll be studying Neuroscience and Immunology there for the next three years. I’m originally from Vancouver but ended up all the way on the other coast to study […]
  • Mind Control. With Lasers.
    Education
    • June 10, 2015
    • by Greg
    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 […]
  • Cort continues his Optogenetics Odyssey in this week's installment of
    Education
    Hello, again. I’m Cort, the fly guy (I also do research with fruit flies) at Backyard Brains. Since the last time I posted I’ve made significant progress in my research! IT WORKS!!! In the above video what you’re seeing is one of the flies I’ve bred having its proboscis extension activated with an LED. Optogenetics […]
  • BYB Summer Camp Internships: Cort Turns Up for Optogenetics
    Education
    My name is Cort Thompson and I’m one of the incredibly privileged interns working at Backyard Brains this summer. I’m an undergraduate neuroscience student at Michigan State University and this summer I am working to bring the cutting edge technique of optogenetics to the classroom while also observing the courtship behaviors and gustatory system of […]