• High Schooler Becomes Educator: Young Fencer's Neuro-Revolution Goes International
    Education
    — Written by Jelena Ciric — [Updated February 2024] There’s one thing that beats inspiring kids to take up neuroscience: Watching them not only catch the spark but pass it along! High schooler Supriya Nair is our case in point. Through scientific outreach using our SpikerBox, she has already ignited the interest of hundreds of […]
  • Young Neurofencer Wins Washington Science Fair (2nd Year in a Row) Using SpikerBox
    Experiment
    — Written by Jelena Ciric — 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 […]
  • BYB Diplomacy: Teaching North Korean Refugees
    Education
    — Written by Tim Marzullo — Backyard Brains’ mission is to spread neuroscience around the world. Our motto is Neuroscience for Everyone! So naturally, when a group of MIT undergraduate students led by Jiwon Kim contacted us, telling us that they were interested in our equipment for some classes they were teaching at Yeomyung School […]
  • Dog and Cat EKG: Recording Electrocardiograms in Humans' Favorite Companions
    Experiment
    — Written by Tim Marzullo — All vertebrate animals have hearts (and many invertebrates too), and many have EKGs that can be non-invasively recorded as commonly done in humans. We have fairly hairless bodies, so we can easily put sticker electrodes on our wrists or chests to record our EKG.  However, many of us share […]
  • Harvard Study Reveals Our Hands-On Remote Labs Really Work
    Education
    Fully remote, fully in-person, or somewhere in a sweet spot between the two. Those are the main safety concerns that are being laid right now in front of the decision makers, on behalf of students, parents, teachers and everyone around them, right at the kickoff of the new academic year. But whichever model prevails, it […]
  • Apply Now for IEEE Brain Virtual Summer School - YaIEEE!
    Education
    A two-week online course on neural engineering spruced up with some signal processing and machine learning – is there a better way to spend two weeks of August? Plus, you’ll tinker with a BYB Heart and Brain SpikerBox – and you’ll get to keep it too! Full details here. If you’re as hyped up about […]
  • Fly a drone with your brain and eyes!
    Education
    This University of Michigan student team developed a way to control a drone with a new kind of controller… We work with students of all ages — from outreach to early elementary, to hands-on demonstrations, labs, and even research with students from fifth grade to… well, grad school and beyond! We wanted to share this […]