May272011May 27, 2011May 27, 20113Commentsby L.

Destroying the curve

Posted in Hardware

So you’re feeling pretty good about the rodent virtual reality system (Hölscher et al. 2005) you have up and running. You’ve got it all… the spherical treadmill with motion tracking feeding back into…

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May162011May 16, 2011May 16, 20114Commentsby L.

Online tools of questionable usefulness

Posted in Software

While on the Gnotero page (a Python app for accessing refs from Zotero, a Firefox plugin-based citation manager, in case you’re wondering), I…

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May122011May 12, 2011May 11, 20110Commentby L.

Another blog added

Posted in Software

Xcorr has some nice posts on coding, Plexon systems, analysis, and whatnot. It was just added to the Recommended Blogs section on the right. Some example posts:
A Plexon C++ API on…

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May112011May 11, 2011May 11, 20110Commentby L.

Idex CVI Melles Griot

Posted in Uncategorized

Acquisition news. In May 2007, CVI bought Melles Griot for $60 million. CVI was itself owned by Norwest Equity Partners. The new CVI Melles Griot then…

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May102011May 10, 2011May 8, 20112Commentsby L.

2p cross sections for fluorescent proteins

Posted in Tips

On the off chance that you missed it, Drobizhev et al. published a bunch of 2p cross sections for fluorescent proteins.

Earlier:
2p cross sections
More…

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May092011May 9, 2011May 8, 20112Commentsby L.

Data’s killer app

Posted in Software

On the topic of the recent app post, I’ve been thinking about an old blog post from Peter Keane. The of his post is, “What is Data’s Killer App?” In it, he pondered the problem of data management.

After a not entirely apt analogy to HTML, Keane suggested that there is no killer app…

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May082011May 8, 2011May 9, 20112Commentsby L.

Apps

Posted in Software

You probably caught the article about the group who runs their laser-trapping experiments using an app they wrote for iOS on the iPad. This sparked a commentary about apps in science. What about some other apps for handheld and tablet computing?

Reference organization

In general, when it comes…

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Apr192011April 19, 2011April 19, 20110Commentby L.

MakerBeam: cheap construction rails

Posted in Hardware

A while back Labrigger covered some sources for alternative mechanics. Here’s a new one. MakerBeam is an inexpensive kit of construction rails aka T-slot bars. This would be a…

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Apr142011April 14, 2011April 14, 20114Commentsby L.

Test slides

Posted in Hardware, Tips

Let me tell you a little story.

The place is the CONFOCALMICROSCOPY listserv.
The time is 1997.

A query asks how to mount fluorescent beads from Molecular Probes in order to image…

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Apr122011April 12, 2011April 12, 20112Commentsby L.

iPad Oscilloscope

Posted in Hardware

To revisit an earlier post on mini-oscilloscopes, how about an iPad oscilloscope?

It’s not available just yet, but Oscium will soon start selling the iMSO-104, a peripheral add-on for the iPad,…

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Apr102011April 10, 2011April 10, 20110Commentby L.

Wireless

Posted in Hardware

I recently returned from my private island in the Maldives. Like most of the inhabited islands, it has no physical…

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Mar162011March 16, 2011March 16, 20112Commentsby L.

Mini oscilloscopes

Posted in Hardware

Seeed Studio repurposed parts for cheap MP3 players and made a production miniature oscilloscope, the DSO nano. I like this small tool and bought one of the first iterations (see…

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Mar132011March 13, 2011March 13, 20111Commentby L.

OpenOptogenetics

Posted in Hardware, Tips

When Karl Deisseroth started publishing his work on Channelrhodopsin-2, he set up a website to share the resources, including plasmid information, protocols for expression systems, and hardware details. His site, optogenetics.org, is…

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Mar112011March 11, 2011March 11, 20111Commentby L.

Laser pointers and quantum mechanics

Posted in Hardware

Laser pointers are handy…

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Mar032011March 3, 2011March 3, 20110Commentby L.

More MATLAB code for 2p scope design

Posted in Software

In the last post, I mentioned how the “minification” factor (the diameter of the PMT detector divided by the diameter…

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