Read Lab Blog

Wise words from Lord Rayleigh

posted by Jenny on April 22, 2015

I’ve just come across the following by Lord Rayleigh, him of the scattering, quoted in The Handbook of Perception and Human Performance: “In science, by a fiction as remarkable as any to be found in law, what has once been … Continue reading

Google cardboard

posted by Jenny on April 20, 2015

Finally got round to buying a Google Cardboard viewer and trying it out on my HTC One phone. Ooof. That is painful. I don’t know if it’s me or my phone (the magnetic clicker doesn’t work with HTC One, that … Continue reading

Should have asked a first-year psychology student…

posted by Jenny on April 20, 2015

I recently watched “The Machine”, an enjoyable sci-fi flick about a secret defence project to construct an artificially intelligent android who will be the ultimate super-soldier. Naturally, they design their robot killer in the form of a shapely young woman … Continue reading

My dream team

posted by Jenny on April 17, 2015

I was just reflecting how awesome my four postdocs are, and thought that rather than keeping such thoughts to myself, I should write a blog post and show them some appreciation. Ghaith, Vivek, Ronny, Kathleen (named in order of when … Continue reading

Definitions of relative disparity

posted by Jenny on April 16, 2015

I thought it might be useful to point out a property of relative disparity. One way is as Andrew Parker does in his 2007 review: Relative disparity = (alpha-beta) in the diagram below. In the special case where P is the … Continue reading

Fear the wrath of the squirrel.

posted by Jenny on December 16, 2014

I’ve been reading the new book “The Folly of Fools: the logic of deceit and self-deception in human life” by evolutionary biologist Robert Trivers. This is my favourite bit. “That deception might induce anger and attack was suggested to me … Continue reading

All human knowledge is there

posted by Jenny on November 26, 2014

I just love how much stuff is accessible online nowadays. I’m old enough that when I started my scientific career, reading a paper meant walking over to the library and looking up the actual physical paper in leather-bound volumes! I … Continue reading

Optical illusion building

posted by Jenny on November 10, 2014

Love this building we saw being put up in London recently. The pattern of the windows makes it look as if it’s a single flat plane. In fact, what we’re looking at is two planes which intersect at a sharp … Continue reading

Bizzare Issue with LCD Monitors

posted by Ghaith on November 6, 2014

This is about an unusual flickering artefact with LCD monitors that I noticed while working on a visual stimulus. I am posting about this for reference and to share information about what can potentially have a big impact on psychophysics/electrophysiology … Continue reading

Shotton Hall Academy – Where can my maths take me?

posted by Paul Hands on October 9, 2014

Last week I was asked to go into a Peterlee academy (Shotton Hall), and they asked me to give a talk about maths in the workplace. Obviously the field that we study in uses a LOT of maths that most … Continue reading

Moving on St. Aidan’s RC sixth form

posted by Paul Hands on July 4, 2014

Continuing the outreach of the lab into another week, this week I spent a few hours at St. Aidan’s sixth form, where I did my A-levels. The head of KS5 (i.e. A levels), Mrs H. Miland, asked me to come … Continue reading

Big Bang Event Newcastle

posted by Paul Hands on June 27, 2014

Last Friday I helped out at the Big Bang festival at Northumbria University. During it we had many different schools approach our stand and it was my job to engage them and get them talking about the brain. We began … Continue reading

Zoltan’s diary: Wednesday 13/02/2013

posted by Zoltan Derzsi on June 26, 2014

I had a little unannounced demo today. I had bits working, and it seemed to make a relatively good impression. As it turned out, the alternate blinking is indeed problematic, as Windows on the computer I got has severe scheduling … Continue reading

Placement at Sky

posted by Paul Hands on May 29, 2014

For the past 5 weeks I have been spending most of my time out of the lab, on a works placement/internship with BskyB, the company that part sponsor my PhD. I have had a fantastic time with the Sky people, … Continue reading

Spikerbox workshop

posted by Jenny on May 24, 2014

The lab recently had a fun Backyard Brains Spikerbox workshop led by Jannetta Steyn. We wired up a simple circuit to record neuromuscular activity and used an Arduino board to produce a visual display.

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