Tag: openness

Patents and academic research

This is about the research exemption for patents. Early in my training, I was taught that academic researchers didn’t need to worry about patents, because they could build whatever they wanted for research purposes without licensing anything….



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…



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…



Pre-preprint: blogging a project

SLAB is trying something new with one project in the lab. Prior to drafting a preprint, we’re blogging the project and sharing the results and analysis. We invite anyone to comment on the…



Allen Institute’s Brain Observatory data set

The Allen Institute has released the first set of data from their Brain Observatory project. Many of you already know about this, but I wanted to post about it to encourage people to take a…



TriggerScope for imaging system device control

Austin Blanco has designed and built an open-source system for controlling complex imaging systems called TriggerScope. It’s highly customizable out of the box, and both the firmware and software are open.



More mini computers

Raspberry Pi is the most popular mini computer right now, but there are other options.

SolidRun sells two. The first is a sleek cube called the CuBox-i (pictured above). The second is a barebones board, the…



A higher-tech open syringe pump

Theo Walker has a very nice open syringe pump design that has some advantages over another open syringe pump project we’ve covered (though the latter is less expensive).



3D printed syringe pump

Here’s a syringe pump, plans and specs.



OpenLabTools at Cambridge

OpenLabTools is a new initiative at Cambridge University, using engineering students to develop modular lab equipment.

The OpenLabTools initiative aims to provide a forum and knowledge centre for the development of low cost and open access…



Optomechanics and microscopy technical notes – many items

Vojnovic’s group at Oxford has dozens of technical notes. Most are concise, and include software code, if applicable. SolidWorks files and PCB files are available on request.

Here are a few examples:

A motorized 4-way optical…



Open source waterbath

An Arduino-powered open source water bath by Luis Zaman.



bioRxiv – The biology preprint server

Launched late last year, CSHL-funded bioRxiv is picking up steam. This is a preprint server, like arXiv, but focused on biology rather than math/physics/com sci/and other quantitative fields, like arXiv is.

It’s certainly not…



AutoHotKey for repetitive tasks

This the favorite tip Labrigger has received this week. Here it is, unedited, and in its entirety:

I often use autohotkey for repetitive file naming and key remapping when I am forced to use clunky software on…