Monthly archives: February, 2011

MATLAB code for designing collection optics for 2p scopes

The Tsai book chapter from Ron Frostig’s CRC book is a great resource for building your own 2p microscope. In section…



White House budget proposal 2012

Funding is tight all over. The question is only: How tight? The White House released its budget today. It’s just a proposal, and is subject…



Repurposing audio recording products

Scientific research equipment is expensive. Partly because the markets are often small, so product development budgets and manufacturing set up costs have to be split over a comparatively small number of units. In addition, the customers are typically more concerned about reliability and service, rather than price.

However, there are other markets where these issues are…



Reality check for the Octavius-2P laser

Lasers for 2-photon microscopy are special in that they deliver all of their photons in a short period of time. Take a standard Ti:Sapph with an 80 MHz pulse rate and 100 fs pulses. If…



In over your head

My Ph.D. program had a more traditional, comprehensive written qualifying exam following the coursework. However, many of my contemporaries in different programs had the new style…