Lightnews — Scholar-powered news

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Anthony Ricciardi @ecoinvasions.bsky.social · 1d

The reviewer crisis: data from the journal Biological Invasions:

"Reviewer acceptance rates dropped steadily over the past two decades. Early-career researchers had the highest acceptance rates, while senior scholars were least likely to accept review invitations."
link.springer.com/article/10.1...

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Inside Higher Ed @insidehighered.com · 8h

🚨 Breaking News | MIT has rejected the Trump admin’s proposal to sign on to the “Compact for Academic Excellence in Higher Education,” which would mandate sweeping changes across campus in exchange for preferential treatment on federal funding.

Read the full story ➡️ https://bit.ly/4h5dQgM

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Daniel Bolnick @danielbolnick.bsky.social · 1d

This:
www.nature.com/articles/d41...
Absolutely yes. And I'm proud that @asn-amnat.bsky.social has led the way on this with requiring code and data editors checking code for about five years now!

Stop treating code like an afterthought: record, share and value it

Scientists, research institutions, funders, libraries and publishers must all improve software practices.

www.nature.com

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Colin Carlson @colincarlson.bsky.social · 1d

Oh cool, he’s singling out random academics now to send targeted harassment this way! Can we stop doing this with our hands tied behind our back and actually try to push him out now

Aaron Rupar @atrupar.com · 1d

RFK Jr: "Somebody showed me a TikTok video of a pregnant woman at 8 months pregnant -- she's an associate professor at the Columbia Medical School -- and she is saying 'F Trump' and gobbling Tylenol with her baby in her placenta. The level of Trump Derangement Syndrome is now a pathology."

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Don Moynihan @donmoyn.bsky.social · 23h

This is the genius of the Portland protests - they make the claims of lawlessness look not just wrong, but comical

The Daily Show @thedailyshow.com · 1d

The following is REAL footage from Portland, 2025. Viewer discretion is advised.

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Peter Tennant @pwgtennant.bsky.social · 1d

Just because an LLM can produce a report with various figures & charts doesn't mean it is good at statistics.

Because good statistics is not about producing code.

It's about deep knowledge of study design & conduct. In my opinion, 95% of all data science problems come from poor questions & design.

Terry McGlynn @hormiga.bsky.social · 1d

Y'all. I just got ChatGPT to do everything in R for this manuscript. I mean EVERYTHING. And it's all legit and reproducible. I'm shook.

How are we mentoring our trainees in statistics now? Who needs to learn coding in R line by line, and who doesn't?

scienceforeveryone.science/statistics-i...

Statistics in the era of AI

How do we mentor, teach, and do stats when AI can do so much of the work?

scienceforeveryone.science

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Aaron Rupar @atrupar.com · 1d

RFK Jr on Tylenol and autism: "It is not proof. We're doing the studies to make the proof."

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RutgersAAUP-AFT @ruaaup-aft.bsky.social · 1d

Read of the day: “Turning Point USA is targeting a Rutgers faculty member for doing his job — in this case, researching the history of postwar anti-fascist movements and writing about them,” [Rutgers AAUP-AFT President] Givan said. https://loom.ly/1rQW_J8

N.J. professor says he’s moving to Europe after death threats over antifa research

Mark Bray said right-wing influencers have been targeting him on social media. Turning Point USA wants him fired.

www.nj.com

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Emily C. Hughes @emilyhughes.bsky.social · 1d

periodic reminder that if you write stuff that's published on the web for a publication you yourself do not own, PDF that shit as soon as it goes live

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Peter Gleick @petergleick.bsky.social · 1d

It looks like Trump's EPA is stonewalling the release of a major scientific report on the health effects of "forever chemicals" in our drinking water.

www.propublica.org/article/epa-...

Scientists Completed a Toxicity Report on This Forever Chemical. The EPA Hasn’t Released It.

Agency scientists found that PFNA could cause developmental, liver and reproductive harms. Their final report was ready in mid-April, according to an internal document reviewed by ProPublica, but the ...

www.propublica.org

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Tammy Steeves @testeeves.bsky.social · 3d

What are the ‘social dimensions’ of moving species for conservation and why does engaging with them matter?

This is the focus of our new paper doi.org/10.1016/j.tr... published in @cp-trendsecolevo.bsky.social olevo.bsky.social led by ever talented @aisrayne.bsky.social

📷 Kevin Parker

Whimsical photo of a karure | kakaruia | Chatham Island black robin courtesy of Kevin Parker. Features as a wee black bird with four leg bands: white over orange on the left leg and red over white on the right leg. Sneaky tufts of feathers peak out from otherwise borb-like body, encouraged by the unseen wind.

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American Fisheries Society @amfisheriessoc.bsky.social · 2d

The American Fisheries Society extends our support to the furloughed fisheries and aquatics professionals affected by the U.S. federal government shutdown. Read our full statement on the shutdown and its impacts on natural resources here fisheries.org/2025/10/afs-...

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Carl Zimmer @carlzimmer.com · 1d

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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Joseph Rezek @rezekjoe.bsky.social · 5d

Just posting this. Everyone knows why.

Text of the fourth amendment “The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be violated, and no warrants shall issue, but upon probable cause, supported by oath or affirmation, and particularly describing the place to be searched, and the persons or things to be seized.”

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Gregg Gonsalves @gregggonsalves.bsky.social · 8d

This is extortion. Faculty, students, staff, alumni across the country need to get to their Presidents & Trustees today. Just say no. This blackmail only works if most everyone folds. Capitulation now means the end of American higher education for a generation. www.nytimes.com/2025/10/02/u...

Trump Administration Asks Colleges to Sign ‘Compact’ to Get Funding Preference

www.nytimes.com

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Veena Dubal @veenadubal.bsky.social · Sep 3

AAUP-HARVARD, AAUP, & UAW WON THE HARVARD CASE!!!!

storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.us...

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Guy Walton..."The Climate Guy" @climateguyw.bsky.social · Sep 3

Main Topic: Dozens of Scientists Find Errors in a New Energy Department Climate Report via @npr.org
On The Extreme Temperature Diary WED 9/03/2025
At: guyonclimate.com
+#climate #weather + record temp reports via
@extremetemps.bsky.social/ @michaelemann.bsky.social
@katharinehayhoe.com

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Inside Higher Ed @insidehighered.com · Sep 3

🚨 Breaking News | Judge Rules Harvard Funding Freeze Illegal

A federal judge said the Trump administration violated the institution's First Amendment rights when it froze billions of dollars in research grants. https://bit.ly/42bh3oH

#EDUSky #AcademicSky #HigherEd

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Ryan Marino, MD @ryanmarino.bsky.social · Sep 3

Vinay Prasad, a former adult oncologist, has moved to disrupt the childhood vaccine schedule by asserting - against all evidence - that administering multiple vaccines at the same time “could blunt their efficacy.” The added burden/delay of separating shots would sharply reduce US vaccination rates.

FDA quietly positions itself to disrupt childhood vaccine schedule

While CDC turmoil grabbed the media spotlight, a quieter but potentially more consequential drama unfolded last week at FDA. The agency has positioned itse...

www.biocentury.com

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Maryn McKenna @marynmck.bsky.social · Sep 1

An extraordinary joint op-ed and plea by NINE former directors or acting directors of the CDC under both Democratic and Republican administrations, succinctly describing undermining of public health, and what’s needed now.
(gift link)

www.nytimes.com/2025/09/01/o...

Opinion | We Ran the C.D.C.: Kennedy Is Endangering Every American’s Health

www.nytimes.com

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Needhi Bhalla 💅🏽 @needhibhalla.bsky.social · Aug 23

Insisting on expertise over ideology is not “politicizing” science. The ideologues installing scientific and governmental policy that is contradicted by evidence and data are.

By emphasizing ideology over expertise, THEY have made arguing for expertise and evidence-based decision making partisan.

Scientists Are Caught in a Political Trap

Fighting back against the Trump administration means they start to look more like activists.

www.theatlantic.com

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Peter Gleick @petergleick.bsky.social · Aug 28

Here is the official statement from the American Meteorological Society on the "foundational flaws" of the Department of Energy’s recent attempt to deny the reality of #climate change.

www.ametsoc.org/ams/about-am...

The Practice and Assessment of Science: Five Foundational Flaws in the Department of Energy's 2025 Climate Report

Adopted by the Executive Committee of the AMS Council on 27 August 2025

www.ametsoc.org

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whet moser @whetmoser.com · Aug 28

“Daskalakis went on to say that Kennedy… had never taken a briefing by a CDC subject matter expert from his center” [vax and respiratory disease]

Brandy Zadrozny @brandyzadrozny.bsky.social · Aug 28

New: In 7 months, Kennedy has broken the CDC, perhaps irreparably. For all he’s done with mass firings, gutting expertise, and attacking vaccines, Wednesday’s loss of its most senior and competent leaders—truly the CDC’s backbone—is the most consequential attack yet.

www.msnbc.com/msnbc/news/c...

‘People will die because of this’: How RFK Jr. drove out the CDC’s senior leaders

On the same day Susan Monarez was fired, four of the agency’s top leaders quit.

www.msnbc.com

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Dr. Sarah Fortner @erthsarah.bsky.social · Aug 28

It’s a hard reality to see all of the NSF & USDA climate education funding vaporize. My sense of how to collaborate & move work forward has shifted tremendously. Definitely feeling some anchoring in the student energy, work, & community right at home.

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David Shiffman, Ph.D. 🦈 @whysharksmatter.bsky.social · Aug 27

For the eleventy billionth time:

Attacks on science funding and science jobs in the United States don’t mean that science will just move elsewhere.

It means a lot less science for everyone.

There aren’t enough jobs or funding everywhere else )combined) for US scientists to just move.

Gregg Gonsalves @gregggonsalves.bsky.social · Aug 25

Some are embracing the fantasy that the cuts to #NIH funding will only have an impact here in the USA. As Nature reports, the NIH is the largest global funder by far and dwarfs the rest of the world’s funders of biomedical research.
www.nature.com/articles/d41...

How the NIH dominates the world’s health research — in charts

Abrupt cuts by the Trump administration to the US National Institutes of Health threaten progress in medical research globally.

www.nature.com

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