Monthly archives: October, 2013

Post-publication peer review on PubMed Commons

PubMed has a new feature: you can comment on the papers using PubMed Commons.

PubPeer, the now-defunct Third Reviewer, reference managers, and journals have offered post-publication peer review for a while now. And…



Sharing your code

Someone recently asked me, “What’s a good way I can share my code?”

There are several ways you can go, of course. Here are the first two that popped into my mind.

A full web site

Squarespace isn’t a bad…



Visual stimulation and intrinsic imaging code

Ian Nauhaus, whom UT Austin recently nabbed, is sharing his code for intrinsic imaging and visual stimulation.

The visual stimulation code is based off of Psychophysics Toolbox, which is already in use by many…



Helioscan paper is out

Click for source

The Helioscan paper is out now in J Neurosci Methods. Mentioned previously on Labrigger.

Here’s a Labrigger interview with the developers.



New NIH due dates

The US government is working again. And, as promised, the NIH has issued revised due dates for grants. NOT-OD-14-003



More site news

Although Labrigger got some positive feedback on the last redesign, some of the more obsessive readers complained that the tile/card format made it difficult to systematically review recent posts….



Managing expectations

In a spartan office looking across Lake Geneva to the French Alps, Henry Markram is searching for a suitably big metaphor to describe his latest project. “It’s going to be the Higgs boson of the brain,…



Open Ephys

Open Ephys is a well-developed, extensive open hardware solution for extracellular electrophysiology.

Founded by Josh Siegle and Jakob Voigts, its motivation resonantes with Labrigger:

We are not motivated to create new tools for their own sake,…



Makerwise: comparing 3d printers

3D printing is a great tool. However, I still don’t recommend buying your own 3D printer. Use a service instead (e.g., Ponoko, Shapeways, or Quickparts). Here’s why:

1. The technology moves fast.

What you…



Site news

The Labrigger audience has been steadily growing since it launched. Many, many more people visit Labrigger in a month than attend the Society for Neuroscience meeting (web traffic aficionados, that’s unique visitors, humans not robots, and they…



Smartport for open source handheld laser control

Wicked Lasers makes laser pointers. High quality, high power laser pointers that can be repurposed for other applications. In fact, some of their lasers should probably never be used as pointers (e.g., this 2 watt 445…



Oscilloscope watch

It tells time, and has a calendar, alarm, oscilloscope, waveform generator, logic analyzer, protocol sniffer, and a frequency counter.

There’s about a month to go on the Kickstarter campaign, if you want one.

The maker, Gabriel Anzziani, has a good track record. Here are some of his earlier devices:



US Government Shutdown, NIH, NSF

The US Government is in shutdown right now. What does that mean for researchers funded by the NIH and NSF?

This notice explains what to expect with respect to the NIH. If that link is down,…