Rube Goldberg machine using light and optics

It’s an ad for a Japanese company’s fiber optic network. In the US, we call these Rube Goldberg machines. In Japan, they’re called Pythagorean Switches (actually). In the UK, they’re called Heath Robinson machines.



Patch clamp amplifier in chip form

See that metal box the pipette holder is attached to? That’s not a headstage, that’s the whole patch clamp amplifier. Reid Harrison is the lead author (co-senior authors are Craig Forest and Ed Boyden)…



100 billion frames per s

Yes, that’s what you think it is. Courtesy of a compressed sensing + streak camera rig made by Liang Gao, Jinyang Liang, Chiye Li & Lihong V. Wang.

Link to video.



Mice running backwards

Today is Thanksgiving in the US. So here’s a avian-themed post. There was a spirited neuroethological debate at a bar during SfN involving the above video. I just caught the tail end of it. The controversial account is that headfixed mice on treadmills, when shown this video, will…



Online app for comparing fluorescent proteins

George McNamara recently posted a comment on spectra, which referenced this online app which is handy.



Field of view = 3.5 mm with cellular resolution

In this preprint, Stirman et al. report achieving a 3.5 mm field of view with 2-photon excitation with cellular resolution. The design involves custom scan optics and a custom objective built in the…



Lightfield imaging – development kit from Lytro

Lytro is releasing a development kit for their light field camera. That’s nice, but it pretty expensive. And we’ve been able to buy light field cameras for technical uses for years.

What’s…



Raspberry Pi oscilloscope

One can use a Raspberry Pi as a highly customizable 20 MHz scope with this cute little BitScope Micro. (about 120 euros, from the OE store)

They have …



MultiSIM BLUE – free circuit design software

MultiSIM BLUE is yet another free, SPICE-based electronics simulator– this one is linked into the MOUSER catalog, to streamline parts sourcing. Also includes PCB design tools.



miniPCR – $500 diy open thermocycler

BioCoder recently featured miniPCR on their cover. They currently have a well funded Kickstarter running, if you’d like to jump on board.

It’s a cute little package, weighing less than 1 pound.



Rolling shutter vs. global shutter: why it matters

Digital cameras can have global shutters or rolling shutters (some cameras can operate in both modes). Global shutters are preferable for periodic applications, including intrinsic imaging, because rolling shutters can cause artifacts. This article does a nice job of explaining the artifacts…



A Canadian open source two-photon microscope system

This open source two-photon microscope system is adaptable for both slice (with substage detection) and in vivo experiments, and is built with largely COTS parts. The paper is a very nice resource.

See also,…



Resonant scanning with ScanImage 5

ScanImage 5 supports resonant scanning with a wide range of hardware. So custom rigs can add resonant scanning pretty easily, while sticking with ScanImage for acquisition.

It takes about $10,000 worth of electronics…



Lenses and lenses and lenses and lenses

Can anyone suggest a nice way to store lenses? Ideas about storage containers and cabinets, and ideas about overall organization are all welcome.



Notes from Austin Blanco

Our friend Christian Wilms tipped us to Austin Blanco’s blog, which has some posts you all might be interested in:

Characterizing unknown optical components
A few notes on Arduinos, their timers, and using…