Citizen Science Sleepaway Camp: BYB Visits Campus Party Brazil

Before I spill the Feijoada about Backyard Brains’ awesome experience at Campus Party Brazil, I should mention that I firmly believe that education can save the world. I should also mention that in regards to our brains, according to neuroscience research, your education lasts your entire life.

I’ll cut to the chase: my recent Brazilian adventure with Backyard Brains has inspired me to write this to promote lifelong education and moreover, to remind you that learning can be enjoyable and even thrilling. It certainly doesn’t have to be bound to a classroom. Keep in mind that evolutionarily speaking, survival did not depend on absorbing curated lesson plans 8 hours a day in a classroom, but upon chaotic and reactive information-gathering experiences.

At birth our brains develop at an extremely rapid rate. Babies form new neurons at a rate of 250,000 every minute! By the time a child is three years old, their brain will reach 80% of adult volume and create close to 1000 trillion connections between billions of neurons. There is a prevailing myth about the brain that after a certain age we stop forming new neurons. This has been dispelled by current research and it’s clear that the brain has an amazing ability to change throughout life. This is called neuroplasticity and it’s the brain’s ability for our neurons to rewire and add new neurons in regions involved in learning throughout our lifetimes. Believe it or not, these new neurons show the same plasticity as seen in the rapidly developing brain of newborns. On top of that, the adult brain uses about 25% of the body’s metabolic energy despite being on average only 2% of our entire body weight. So considering that a quarter of your energy going to supporting you brain, which has this amazing adaptability to develop and optimize throughout life, why not continually take advantage of your own brain’s superpower of learning?

So, what if we threw super-fun, non-stop parties that were also packed full of learning opportunities? What if these events ran non-stop for up to a week straight? What if we invited world leaders of technology, entertainment, innovation, creativity and science to give inspiring keynote speeches and exciting, intimate workshops? Would the world become a better place?

No need to ponder any further: this type of forward-thinking, multidisciplinary educational party already exists! It’s called Campus Party and Backyard Brains had a blast earlier this year at Campus Party Brazil!

The very first Campus Party to happen in all of Asia is coming soon. This July 6th – 8th, join us at Campus Party Singapore! Backyard Brains will be there putting on two workshops each day. Come learn about neuroscience with us through fun hands-on experiments. You can create your own cyborg cockroach in the RoboRoach Workshop and control your friend’s mind in the Human Interface Workshop. We hope to see you there!!
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The NeuroRevolution continues in Bangalore, India

Neuroscience is making its way across the globe! Recently, The Harvard South Asia Institute selected 25 young students of technology to participate in a two-week long workshop, introducing them to the excitement and interdisciplinary nature of neuroscience and engineering in Bangalore, India. Course managers included our longtime Harvard colleagues and scientists Venkatesh Murthy and Laura Magnotti , and during two weeks the students learned about brain function from ion channels on up to cognitive networks. As one part of the hands-on component of the workshop, the students did experiments using our gear! They used the Neuron SpikerBox kits to record action potentials from cricket and grasshopper legs (which the students caught themselves on campus). They also experimented with humans, recording EMG during arm wrestling contests, using the Muscle SpikerBox.

The Harvard South Asia Institute workshop seeks to introduce Indian students to the excitement of brain science, and this is the second version of the workshop; We are happy that the NeuroRevolution is expanding and creating a wider community all over the world. The workshop had graduate and undergraduate students, who usually do not sit for classes together, learning and helping do experiments on the electrical activity of neurons. For many, it was the first time doing electrophysiology!

Read the full article that was featured in The Times of India here to find out more about this workshop. Many more shall come!

10,000 Spikerboxes!!!!111!!!one1!

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 so many people!

While the Spikerbox is our “core” product, and our first, it’s far from the only tool we sell to educators and aspiring neuroscientists. In addition to our numerous products, we have an extensive library of experiments suitable for classrooms, homes, or science fair projects!

So, will you help us reach 100,000 Neuron SpikerBoxes?  Maybe 10,000 Muscle SpikerBoxes?  If you’re all set with our products, keep using them and soon we’ll have over 100,000 first time spikes.

Last, but not least, we need to thank the humble cockroach-without these six legged heroes, the SpikerBox, and therefore Backyard Brains, could never have reached this point.  You can get some cockroaches for yourself, or show your love for them with our awesome t-shirts and roach logo mugs.

Thank you again, and continue on with the Neuro Revolution!