Lightnews — Scholar-powered news

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James Briscoe @jamesbriscoe.bsky.social · 1d

The @crick.ac.uk is recruiting Early Career Group Leaders

- Lab set-up, research costs, salaries for up to 5 researchers
- Support for up to 12 years
- Access to our core facilities
- Competitive salary
- Fantastic colleagues
- All areas of biology

Deadline 27 Nov

www.crick.ac.uk/careers-stud...

Early career group leaders

We appoint researchers from across biology and biomedicine to set up their first groups at the Crick.

www.crick.ac.uk

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Fred Hutch Basic Sciences Division @hutchbasicsci.bsky.social · 9d

The Weintraub Award is seeking nominations for 2026! The award recognizes the outstanding achievements of grad students in biology and was established to honor the bold, creative, pioneering spirit embodied by Dr. Hal Weintraub. www.fredhutch.org/en/research/...

Harold M. Weintraub Graduate Student Award

Annual award to honor the bold, creative, pioneering spirit embodied by Hal Weintraub. The Harold M. Weintraub Graduate Student Award recognizes outstanding achievements during graduate studies in the...

www.fredhutch.org

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Ewan Birney @ewanbirney.bsky.social · 1d

I am hiring! - looking for a Staff Scientist to co-run my research group with me. Staff Scientist is a senior professional scientist role at EMBL. Please forward to people you might know who could be interested! embl.wd103.myworkdayjobs.com/en-US/EMBL/j...

Staff Scientist

About EMBL-EBI EMBL’s European Bioinformatics Institute is a data powerhouse, utilised on a global scale to advance scientific discovery through bioinformatics and solutions to some of the world’s mos...

embl.wd103.myworkdayjobs.com

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Kim Cooper @ucsdcooperlab.bsky.social · 12h

Extremely proud of @ceriweber.bsky.social and team and the newest paper from our lab!

Ceri Weber @ceriweber.bsky.social · 14h

This project started during my postdoc interview when I asked @ucsdcooperlab.bsky.social "jerboa tails seem longer. Have you looked into that?". It turns out the jerboa tail is approximately 1.5x longer than the mouse, normalized to body length, but with 3-4 *fewer* vertebrae than in mice.

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PlantEvolution 🌱🌾 @plantevolution.bsky.social · 16h

Congrats, Joe Ecker @salkinstitute.bsky.social, to receiving the McClintock Prize! Joe has been a visionary leader of the field of genetics and genomics – not only for plants – for decades
www.salk.edu/news-release...

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Josh Moody @byjoshmoody.bsky.social · 20h

MIT rejects "compact" proposed by the Trump administration.
MIT prez wrote: it "would restrict freedom of expression and our independence as an institution" and "is inconsistent with our core belief that scientific funding should be based on scientific merit alone."
orgchart.mit.edu/letters/rega...

Regarding the Compact | MIT Organization Chart

orgchart.mit.edu

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Carl Zimmer @carlzimmer.com · 2d

Today my @nytimes.com colleagues and I are launching a new series called Lost Science. We interview US scientists who can no longer discover something new about our world, thanks to this year‘s cuts. Here is my first interview with a scientist who studied bees and fires. Gift link: nyti.ms/3IWXbiE

nyti.ms

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Jeffrey Ross-Ibarra @jrossibarra.bsky.social · 1d

PEQG website live! genetics-gsa.org/peqg-2026/

Homepage - 2026 Population, Evolutionary, and Quantitative Genetics Conference

Visit our website to learn more.

genetics-gsa.org

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Sam Bagenstos @sbagen.bsky.social · 1d

I am really glad that @jeremymberg.bsky.social wrote this. Everybody who cares about science, and about knowledge generation and civil society generally, should read and share with their favorite administrator.

Deafening Quiet from the Scientific Establishment
open.substack.com/pub/donmoyni...

Deafening Quiet from the Scientific Establishment

Leaders are underestimating the risks of not fighting back

open.substack.com

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The Francis Crick Institute @crick.ac.uk · 1d

We're now recruiting early career group leaders at the Crick to lead ambitious research programmes and explore bold scientific questions.

Hear our Director, Edith Heard, explain why the Crick is a unique place for curiosity-driven research.

Apply now ➡️ www.crick.ac.uk/careers-stud...

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Nature Reviews Cancer @natrevcancer.nature.com · 3d

In this #Journal Club, @delvecchyo.bsky.social &Co discuss a study that mapped the genetic basis of hybrid incompatibility in swordtail fish, revealing #melanoma-causing gene interactions that reduce survival in natural hybrid populations.

📖 ⬇️

Discovering genetic interactions that cause melanoma in a non-model species - Nature Reviews Cancer

In this Journal Club, Lopez-Hernandez and Ortega-Del Vecchyo discuss a study that mapped the genetic basis of hybrid incompatibility in swordtail fish, revealing melanoma-causing gene interactions that reduce survival in natural hybrid populations.

www.nature.com

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Ewan Birney @ewanbirney.bsky.social · 2d

A reminder that the PhD program for EMBL is open for winter recruitment round. If you want to understand life at a molecular level and have a quantitative science (you don't have to have done biology - we love our mathematicians/physcists/chemists!) apply www.embl.org/about/info/e...

Application – EMBL International PhD Programme

www.embl.org

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Ryan Hernandez @rdhernand.bsky.social · 2d

There are unprecedented challenges for science, calling for bold action and collective effort. Training the next generation of scientific leaders has never been more important. Join us as we grow National PROPEL to answer this call. Learn more: propelscholars.org @propelscholars.bsky.social 🧪🧬🖥️🧵

Building a community of PROPEL-affiliated programs at UCSF, U. Utah, UCSC, MUSC, U. Iowa, UW/Fred Hutch, OHSU, and Stanford!

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Ishmail Abdus-Saboor @ishmailsaboor.bsky.social · 2d

I’m extremely honored to be a recipient of the NIH Director’s Pioneer Award!

Columbia University's Zuckerman Institute @zuckermanbrain.bsky.social · 2d

Congratulations to @ishmailsaboor.bsky.social on receiving the NIH Director’s Pioneer Award, celebrating “scientists with outstanding records of creativity.” His lab will explore how the sense of touch can help build relationships. 🫶🧠💡

See zuckermaninstitute.columbia.edu/zuckerman-in...

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Voices for Progress @voicesforprogress.org · 3d

@jenna-m-norton.bsky.social “Every awful thing that would happen in a shutdown...is already happening.” This isn’t about partisanship. It’s about stopping the erosion of our public services. It’s time to protect the programs that serve our communities and stand up to authoritarianism. #StopTheScam

Why some federal workers aren't scared by the threat of shutdown layoffs

Some federal workers support the government shutdown, even as President Trump threatens to use this moment to lay off employees and cut funding to programs.

www.npr.org

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Nancy Kanwisher @nancykanwisher.bsky.social · 4d

I am proud of MIT, where our branch of AAUP has voted unanimously to endorse this statement urging MIT leadership and the MIT Corporation to reject the Compact wholesale
docs.google.com/document/d/1...

Letter Regarding Compact

MIT Chapter of the American Association of University Professors October 6, 2025 Statement on the “Compact for Academic Excellence in Higher Education” MIT has been invited by the federal governmen...

docs.google.com

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Rosa Lafer-Sousa @rosalafersousa.bsky.social · 3d

Over the weekend ICE abducted an NIH contractor when he showed up to a courthouse for his green card hearing. He is documented. His wife is a citizen.

He is also member of the skeleton crew of animal care staff that works through a shutdown, to ensure the health and wellbeing of research animals.

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Megan Dennis @mydennis.bsky.social · 4d

Happy to share work spearheaded by former grad student Colin Shew testing shared duplicated cis regulatory elements (CREs) using an MPRA. While we find some high effect CREs, collectively paralog differences represent modest effects accounting for observed gene expression divergence.

bioRxiv Genomics @biorxiv-genomic.bsky.social · 5d

Influence of cis-regulatory elements on regulatory divergence in human segmental duplications https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2025.10.03.680410v1

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Jonathan Pritchard @jkpritch.bsky.social · 4d

I want to try something again at #ASHG25 this year: I'll block some time on Thursday and Friday afternoons to meet with trainees who would be interested to chat on any topic.

I did this last year and it was great to meet a whole bunch of new people, at all career stages!

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FlyBase @flybase.bsky.social · 7d

There's an update on the state of FlyBase on the FlyBase.org front page. You can contribute to FlyBase at this link wiki.flybase.org/wiki/FlyBase...
We express enormous gratitude to the people, labs, groups, and foundations who have already helped us.
#FlyBase #Drosophila

FlyBase Update – October 2025
The termination of the NIH/NHGRI FlyBase grant has placed the long-term sustainability of FlyBase at risk. However, thanks to the generous support of several key individuals and institutions, we are pleased to announce that FlyBase will remain operational through the coming year. We extend our deepest gratitude to Yukiko Yamashita, Cassandra Extavour, Hugo Bellen, Thom Kaufman, the Genetics Society of America / Drosophila Board, the Bloomington Drosophila Stock Center, an anonymous donor and the Wellcome Trust. We are especially thankful for a generous gift from Seemay Chou, Jed McCaleb, and The Navigation Fund. We also greatly appreciate the continued support from the broader Drosophila community – your donations and service fees have been vital in helping us stay afloat. Special thanks also go to Jessica Manning for her tireless administrative work at Harvard, to Ruth Lehmann, Hugo Bellen, and Paul Sternberg for advice and efforts, and to the Board of the European Drosophila Society for all their efforts. Sadly, we must also share that several long-standing FlyBase team members have recently moved on. We are immensely grateful to Susan Russo-Gelbart, Lynn Crosby, Gil dos Santos, Kris Broll, Victoria Jenkins, and TyAnna Lovato for their many years of dedicated service and contributions to FlyBase. Looking ahead, ensuring FlyBase’s sustainability beyond the next year – and successfully integrating with the Alliance – will require new funding sources. We kindly ask for your continued support:
• European labs: Please consider contributing to the Cambridge, U.K. FlyBase group
• U.S. and other non-European labs: Please consider contributing to the U.S. FlyBase groups
• Both U.K. and U.S. FlyBase are working diligently to establish an invoicing system. We appreciate your continued patience.
For more information on how to support us, please visit: Contribute to FlyBase wiki page https://wiki.flybase.org/wiki/FlyBase:Contribute_to_FlyBase

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Julia Kreiner @jmkreiner.bsky.social · 4d

Human-mediated land-use and climate change occur simultaneously, but how do they interact to shape adaptive dynamics? Super excited to share the first paper from the Kreiner lab, led by postdoc extraordinaire @rpineau.bsky.social

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Governor Gavin Newsom @governor.ca.gov · 5d

This is a breathtaking abuse of the law and power by the President of the United States.

America is on the brink of martial law.

Do not be silent.

Governor JB Pritzker @govpritzker.illinois.gov · 5d

This evening, President Trump is ordering 400 members of the Texas National Guard for deployments to Illinois, Oregon, and other locations within the United States. No officials from the federal government called me directly to discuss or coordinate.

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The Guardian @theguardian.com · 8d

California vows to ‘instantly’ cut funding to universities that cave to Trump ‘compact’

Governor Gavin Newsom urges schools not to sign ‘radical agreement’ to cuts to departments, students and speech Any California universities that sign the Trump administration’s proposed “Compact for Academic Excellence in Higher Education” will “instantly” lose their state funding, California governor Gavin Newsom said in a statement. The Trump administration on Wednesday offered nine prominent universities, including the University of Southern California, the chance to sign a “compact” that asks the universities to close academic departments that “purposefully punish, belittle, and even spark violence against conservative ideas”, limit the proportion of international undergraduate students to 15% , accept the administration’s definition of gender and ban the consideration of race or sex in hiring and admissions, in exchange for “substantial and meaningful federal grants”. Continue reading...

www.theguardian.com

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Liz Haswell @ehaswell.bsky.social · 9d

"What is happening in this country is happening because science is bad for tyrants, and always has been"

Science Vs @sciencevs.bsky.social · 9d

This moment from our latest episode with science writer @edyong209.bsky.social is 🔥

We asked Ed — how do we talk up the benefits of science in the face of government cuts? He told us that's the wrong approach. 🧪

Listen wherever, or watch on Spotify 👇

open.spotify.com/episode/7Evh...

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David L. Stern @gallseeker.bsky.social · 10d

It's official! We are moving to Stowers!
Very exciting opportunity to expand our studies of insect-plant interactions. We have many opportunities available in biochemistry, development, behavior, genetics, evolution, genomics, AI, and even pest control. Interested in any of these things? Reach out!

Stowers Institute @stowersinstitute.bsky.social · 10d

NEWS🎉 We’re excited to announce @hhmijanelia.bsky.social Investigator David Stern will join the Institute from Janelia Research Campus. His lab studies how aphids transform plants at the genetic level, uncovering secrets of #evolution & new strategies for pest control. @hhmi.org bit.ly/4np96Fb

Stowers Institute recruits renowned developmental and evolutionary…

David Stern, Ph.D., brings groundbreaking research on insect–plant interactions for next-generation pest control to the Institute.

bit.ly

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