Laser power modulation: EOMs and AOMs

Fast laser power modulation in 2p systems is typically done with a Pockels cell. Conoptics sells one that is optimized for common Ti:Sapph systems, and that’s what many people end up using.

Pockels cells are a…



Detailed protocol for IV viral injections to drive systemic transgene expression


CRISPR/Cas9 technology has greatly accelerated the development of genetically engineered mice, but it’s still a big investment of time before the mice are ready. For quicker turnaround, there are other options (and speed isn’t the only…



Real-time tracking and 2p imaging with sub-ms timing

In this work, the authors used fast optical motion tracking and 2p imaging to measure the activity of individual neurons in freely moving animals. No surgery. No optical window. No restraint. And all the benefits of…



LabMaker – a retail source for some open source projects

LabMaker sells parts, kits, and assemblies for open source neuroscience tools, including the UCLA MiniScope and Crystal Skull “coverslips”.



Large scale, open neuroscience is a work-in-progress

The International Brain Lab (IBL) project has an outstanding team of PIs, covering both theory and experiments. The measurements themselves are interesting, and can lead to important insights. However, what is most…



Server space – cloud or on-campus?


Cloud storage is not the cure-all it is sometimes proposed to be. On-campus servers have some advantages in transmission speed and cost, especially as storage requirements grow considerably. Talk to your campus IT services before shelling…



Bias – Good people aren’t good enough

This is a bit off topic, but it’s my blog, so I’ll allow it.
A brief note on bias:
It’s not good enough to be a good person. Bias can be like an optical illusion.



EasyEDA update – online circuit design

We posted about EasyEDA years ago. They’re going strong. They’ve updated the software, and added an online, free Gerber viewer. They’ve also branched out and sell components.



New online forum for Labrigger

Here are the new Labrigger forums, running on Discourse.

Background: Justin Kiggins asked about having a Slack channel for Labrigger. The poll indicated majority support, so we agreed to set it up. Alexander Chamessian…



Labrigger on Twitter

FYI: Labrigger also has a Twitter feed, which has content that doesn’t show up on this web page.



Optical Revolution meeting, Sept 6-10, Woods Hole

The 71st Annual Symposium of General Physiologists is entitled “The Optical Revolution in Physiology: from Membrane to Brain“. It features some great scientists including: Jennifer Lippincott-Schwartz, Atsushi Miyawaki, Eric Betzig, Vivian Gradinaru, Na Ji,…



Using NI DAQmx in MATLAB

This post is from Rob Campbell:
As part of TENSS we have created a set of examples showing how to use DAQmx in MATLAB without the Data Acquisition Toolbox. This is achieved…



OpenMV – Fast and easy machine vision

OpenMV is an open source machine vision system. It’s designed to be easy-to-use, with a gentle learning curve. They want this to be the “Arduino of Machine Vision”. The software IDE is free…



Moire lenses

Moiré lenses are cool: two patterned diffractive optical elements are rotated relative to each other to vary the power of the “lens”. Just watch the video (below).

Demonstration of focus-tunable diffractive Moiré-lenses
Stefan Bernet, Walter Harm,…



Democratized state-of-the-art neuroscience

Andre and colleagues have a preprint up on their project generating inexpensive instrumentation for imaging and optogenetics experiments. The 100 Euro Lab: A 3-D Printable Open Source Platform For Fluorescence Microscopy, Optogenetics…