Michael Kasten

Recognizing that I'm several years behind the curve here, but with Plastics One long gone, what is the go to right now for bipolar stainless steel electrodes, commutators, etc?

Years ago, I had a perfect Ig Nobel project that actually proved an interesting proof of concept. I was rejected because while truly informative and useful, it was "silly".

It was the beginning of my mad scientist journey. #stillmad

The halo is temporary, the rest is permanent.

Poor. Electrical. Connection. (Intermittent).

Great for testing grounding, looking for loops, etc, but once that’s done? Banana plugs!!

Lolol. We have an older model (not even sure it’s Thorlabs??) and the power supply just died. I swapped it out with a laptop power supply I had and it worked great!! It works but just doesn’t like to stay off.

Booooo!!! I was looking to buy one of those. Ground wire coming out of a BNC sounds is genius!!

I’ve gotten to the point that I have:

1) run a ton of water through the lines to remove any residual salt
2) replace the tubing every ~2-3 months
3) run a ground wire through tubing

I hate it.

Electronics on the rig that don’t properly ground are the devil. Best reason to buy from “ephys folk”

When it’s not that it’s usually a salty bridge in the bath, the pipette holder, or the damn vacuum line (my personal nemesis).

I’m always trying to tell people it’s less complicated than you think. 99% of the time, something isn’t grounded (or is improperly grounded, ie, a poor connection). It might be a lamp, a manipulator, the microscope, etc. Use a central grounding station with banana clips (no alligator clips).

Apologies if this is too <old man yells at cloud>

I haven’t used HumSilencer, these devices may help give better recordings/traces, I don’t recommend them, it’s always better to work out and minimize noise directly. Occasionally noise sources may be ungroundable (once had a manipulator that had 20 kHz noise + harmonics from a stepper motor).

a man in a military uniform is asking " you want answers " Alt: Jack Nicholson in a few good men asking " you want answers "

Did you call the Code Red on Secretary Hegseth?

Finally!! One good thing happens in Peoria! What's next, Moline? #probablynot

It doesn’t take long to declare war on Portland….

Trump is the first sitting president to attend the Ryder Cup

ETTD, competitive golf edition:

I was all about Montgomery, having grown up with a daily view of their test tower, but they’re owned by KONE now. A purgatorial option?

Update^2: Still still here. #fuck #RaptureWatch2025

Update: Still here. #RaptureWatch2025

CRISPR-mediated activation of a promoter or enhancer rescues obesity caused by haploinsufficiency Obesity caused by loss of function of one gene copy can be rescued via CRISPR-mediated activation of the normal copy.

Thank you!

This is the first for CRISPRa for a neurodevelopmental disorder, as far as I'm aware, but Navneet Matharu (also an author here!) and @nadavahituv.bsky.social used this approach to treat obesity related to Sim1 and and Mc4r: www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...

CRISPR activation for SCN2A-related neurodevelopmental disorders Nature - Using SCN2A haploinsufficiency as a proof-of-concept, upregulation of the existing functional gene copy through CRISPR activation was able to rescue neurological-associated phenotypes in...

SCN2A loss is strongly linked to neurodevelopmental delays and, at times, seizure. In an amazing collaboration with @nadavahituv.bsky.social, led by Serena Tamura, Andrew Nelson, and Perry Spratt, we leveraged CRISPR activator approaches to rescue this loss.

rdcu.be/eGU0W

Outstanding work!! I’m wildly ignorant, is this the first demonstration of CRISPR for haploinsufficiency?

CONGRATULATIONS!!!🍾🎊🎉🎈

a cartoon character wearing glasses and a black jacket is standing in front of a wall with a hand on it Alt: Edna Mode saying “Too much darling, too much!”

It’s either 10 years too little or 45 seconds too much.

a close up of a man wearing a sweater with the words knives out on the bottom right Alt: Chris Evans in his Knives Out sweater saying “Tell Me Everything”

Outstanding!!

a man is standing in front of a shelf full of movies including deep cover Alt: an idiot standing in front of a shelf full of movies saying "OOOOOH!! Navy SEALS!!"

All I can think of with this article is Trump acting out this GIF: www.nytimes.com/2025/09/05/u...

Looks like the link out of GitHub was missing a 2025_ in the address. It’s at docs.internationalbrainlab.org/notebooks_external/2025_data_release_brainwidemap.html

NOT DELICIOUS!! #ithink #dontwannaknow

As soon as my funding completely runs out I’ll have the ~1500 hrs to dedicate to the task..

How many existing R01 projects have gone unfunded/cancelled?

Stephen Miller, final answer