The Amp Hour

An interview with Greg and Tim of Backyard Brains - Boethetic Bug Brainwaves

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Welcome Greg Gage and Tim Marzullo of Backyard Brains! (hereafter annotated as “BB”)

  • The focus of BB is to make simple to use electronics so that neuroscience is taught sooner in students' lives.
  • The Spiker box is a signal chain with bio instrumentation amp, then bandpass filtering, then an amplifier to output through a speaker
  • It turns out that plants also have electrophysiology (action potential firing). Especially
  • The cortex is done in layers, so the polarity lines up and the signals are detectible
  • The human brain initiative is part of a push from the Obama administration. It's meant to increase the understanding of the brain.
  • Tim did some predication of the future:
    • 2035 neuromotes, silicon wrapped in biocompatible material.
    • 2165 is the completely controllable to the single neuron layer.
    • There is a bluetooth kit to control bugs by manipulating their antennae. It's called The Roboroach; it uses similar science as to the experiments by Luigi Galvani on frog legs.
    • Greg gave a TED talk about the human to human interface
    • Chris knew what the Myelin sheath is; a coating over neurons that allows signals to travel faster.
    • Squid giant axon and the entire equation is governed by the telegraphers equation. 
    • Communication between axon of one neuron and the dendrite of the next is done via neurotransmitters. Check out the diagram of a neuron on wiki.
    • The Spiker box can also act on the output of electromyograms.
    • Chris had a chance to meet Greg and see some of the electronics in action (with bugs) with Hackaday in Ann Arbor, MI.
    • On the educational front, BB's goal is to make more experts via their tutorials and kits.
    • For neurological disorders, doctors are starting to look at using electroceuticals instead of pharmaceuticals.
    • Ben Krasnow did a video about creating his own TMS.
      • https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HUW7dQ92yDU
    • Chris confused DBS (where they install an electrode) vs TMS (where there is an external magnetic field).
    • BB has done some educational based research papers.
    • They have been working with marine biology in Woods Hole. Aneonomes and jellyfish have loose neural nets and there is very little understood about them.
    • BB got a fellowship from Chilean gov't (Startup Chile). They also have worked with folks from the Santiago Maker Space.
      • ...more
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