Oct082011October 8, 2011October 8, 20110Commentby L.

Books online for free from the NIH

Posted in Tips

Within the PubMed architecture, there are a lot of resources, visible on the pulldown list next to the search field. If you browse down a bit, you’ll see “Books”. (direct link)

These are…

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Oct032011October 3, 2011October 3, 201121Commentsby L.

Osmometer tech – Vapor or Freezing point?

Posted in Hardware

I’ve used Wescor Vapro osmometers for a long time. Specifically, the model pictured above. They’re nice machines. But now I think freezing point osmometers are better. In this post I’ll talk about why.

The Wescor Vapro…

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Oct022011October 2, 2011September 28, 20110Commentby L.

OSX: Spotlight problem

Posted in Software, Tips

Quick OSX tip: if you’re finding that your OSX system is quite busy even though you haven’t asked anything of it, check to see if the processes “mds” and “mdworker” are chewing up CPU cycles (view active processes in Activity Monitor).

If so,…

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Oct012011October 1, 2011September 27, 20113Commentsby L.

Sense of scale

Posted in Uncategorized

The vast majority of the time, I buy what I intend to. Like the old maxim from construction: “Measure twice, cut once”, I always take care to ensure I’m ordering the right thing. At least when things are expensive. When they’re cheap, I’m…

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Sep302011September 30, 2011September 25, 20110Commentby L.

Easy Arduino projects just got even easier

Posted in Hardware

The killjoy afficiando commenters at Hack a Day love to deride as unsophisticated any project that uses an Ardunio (e.g. this thread). The platform has become so popular that, to co-opt…

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Sep292011September 29, 2011September 25, 20111Commentby L.

NEURON + Python in OSX

Posted in Software

Post by Christoph Schmidt-Hieber

+

Here are some relatively pain-free instructions to get NEURON to run with Python support on OS X.

1. Install XCode 3.x. XCode 4 will not work (*). You…

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Sep282011September 28, 2011September 25, 20119Commentsby L.

DIY Heat pad

Posted in Hardware

More cleverness from Taro Ishikawa. Instead of buying a homeothermic heating pad for surgeries (these often cost > $1000), Taro used some basic industrial process control items. He bought his stuff in Japan, but similar items are available from McMaster-Carr in…

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Sep272011September 27, 2011September 25, 20118Commentsby L.

DIY Picospritzer

Posted in Hardware, Tips

I was in Tokyo recently and stopped by my friend Taro Ishikawa’s lab (of TaroTools fame). He and Misa are doing very well. They have exciting work underway and are expanding their…

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Sep262011September 26, 2011September 25, 20110Commentby L.

Art – Neurobiology art by Greg Dunn

Posted in Uncategorized

Greg Dunn, a grad student at Penn, is a gifted artist. His work combines the geometry of neuronal arbors with the spare aesthetics of east Asian watercolor art.

…

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Sep242011September 24, 2011April 9, 20122Commentsby L.

GECOs – New proteins for calcium imaging

Posted in Tips

Post by Christian Wilms

Call me old-fashioned, but I’m a big fan of small organic calcium indicators (e.g., Oregon Green BAPTA 1). Yes, genetically encoded calcium indicators (GECIs) have many…

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Sep052011September 5, 2011September 5, 20110Commentby L.

Rename variables in MATLAB

Posted in Software, Tips

MATLAB version R2011b has just been released. The new format for error messages is not as mind blowing as you might have heard. However, there’s one cute little…

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Sep012011September 1, 2011September 1, 20113Commentsby L.

Project enclosures

Posted in Hardware, Tips

Here are some ideas for project enclosures. The stock enclosures from Mouser, Digikey, and others are generally serviceable, but are rarely the perfect size. In addition, making the required cutouts can be inconvenient. Here are a couple of alternatives.

…

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Aug122011August 12, 2011August 12, 20112Commentsby L.

Viewing CAD files online

Posted in Software, Tips

When I’m in a tight spot and don’t have CAD software handy, there are a couple of sites I use to view CAD files online.

…

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Jul262011July 26, 2011July 26, 20111Commentby L.

MATLAB Mobile 2.0: cloud computing

Posted in Software

MATLAB Mobile is a way to use MATLAB from an iOS device. It’s cute, but a bit odd, because you used to need to have MATLAB running on your own server in…

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Jul232011July 23, 2011July 23, 20110Commentby L.

Tell the NIH what to spend money on

Posted in Tips

There’s an RFI (request for information) out now for the NIH Blueprint for Neuroscience (the structure that cuts across different institutes that all support neuroscience: NINDS, NIMH, NEI, etc.). These RFIs…

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