Lightnews — Scholar-powered news

Wei Yang Tham @wytham88.bsky.social · Aug 30

these are very cool, thank you!

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Wei Yang Tham @wytham88.bsky.social · Aug 29

oh that's a nice, clean look. thank you!

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Wei Yang Tham @wytham88.bsky.social · Aug 29

haha I started looking at it cos of you! but that's a good idea, thanks!

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Wei Yang Tham @wytham88.bsky.social · Aug 29

experimenting with Typst recently. any recommendations for templates? cc @paulgp.com

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Wei Yang Tham @wytham88.bsky.social · Jul 18

If you're at Summer Institute and see a lightweight, dark green sweater lying around pls lmk!

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Michael Baym @baym.lol · May 24

I appreciate the offers from other scientists to help Harvard (students, labs, etc) through this attack, but what would be most helpful is for you to use your position to contact your elected representatives and make it clear this fight isn't just Harvard, it will affect you, and their districts too

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Joshua J. Friedman @joshuajfriedman.com · May 9

Rümeysa Öztürk has been freed!!

Tufts student detained by ICE in viral video is released, thanks supporters

Tufts University student Rumeysa Ozturk was released from ICE detention on Friday, offering brief words of thanks to supporters gathered outside the Louisiana facility.

www.nbcboston.com

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Helen Branswell 🇨🇦 @helenbranswell.bsky.social · May 2

The #NIH will no longer allow researchers working on its grants have sub-awards in other countries, a common practice that allows US scientists to investigate questions that cannot be studied in this country. @mmolteni.bsky.social reports. www.statnews.com/2025/05/01/n...

NIH halts funding for new projects with foreign collaborators, citing national security concerns

NIH announced it will no longer allow subawards to foreign institutions, as part of a national security-minded overhaul to how it manages research funding

www.statnews.com

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Kyle Cheney @kyledcheney.bsky.social · Apr 25

NEWS: After canceling thousands of foreign students' immigration records — threatening their ability to study and live in the US — the Trump administration has reversed course and restored them all.

It follows intense pushback from courts across the country.

Details TK

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judgeluttig.bsky.social @judgeluttig.bsky.social · Apr 15

On this day, April 14, 2025, the President of the United States openly defied the Supreme Court’s unanimous opinion of April 10, 2025, ordering him to “facilitate Abrego Garcia’s release from custody in El Salvador

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Matt Novak @paleofuture.bsky.social · Apr 8

"What the U.S. is doing now is not reform. It is rejecting the very system it created." - Singapore's Prime Minister Lawrence Wong

(April 8, 2025)

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Ian Bogost 🍔 @ibogost.bsky.social · Apr 5

If you are a university researcher NOT paid on soft money, and federal grant cancellations or disruptions are impacting your personal income (e.g., via summer salary losses or other direct-compensation disruptions), I would like to speak with you: [email protected] or Signal ibogost.47.

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Daniel P. Gross @danielpgross.bsky.social · Mar 29

Looks like the cat is out of the bag. Good post by @stuartbuck.bsky.social on indirect cost recovery citing new joint work with @sampat.bsky.social and @pierre-azoulay.bsky.social.

Find it here: www.dropbox.com/scl/fi/g8792...

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Bitsy Perlman @bitsyperlman.bsky.social · Mar 25

The building was built to have that level of telework. People built their lives around not having an office. This is a much bigger deal than "commuting sucks" (thought it does) and "figuring out childcare is hard" (thought it is). It's am I going to move my family for an uncertain job?

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Hansi Lo Wang (he/him) @hansilowang.bsky.social · Mar 24

JUST IN: The Census Bureau is ending its telework and remote-work agreements for unionized federal workers and requiring a full return to office for telework employees by April 21 and a return for remote employees within 60 days, according to emails shared with @npr.org

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Wei Yang Tham @wytham88.bsky.social · Mar 23

Such is the burden of being right about everything

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Hansi Lo Wang (he/him) @hansilowang.bsky.social · Mar 15

NEW: The Census Bureau hasn't been recruiting and retaining enough interviewers for three key surveys, including the source of the monthly job report, and lacks a plan for building up a field representative staff, the bureau's internal watchdog, Commerce OIG, finds
www.oig.doc.gov/wp-content/O...

WHAT WE FOUND

We found that the bureau does not have effective strategies to address staffing gaps and high vacancies in FR positions. Specifically, the bureau did not:

• Meet its staffing goals for ACS, CPS, and NCVS.
• Implement a process to track and assess vacancy information from the regions.

Without a workforce plan, the bureau lacks a comprehensive strategy to ensure it has the necessary FR staff to help accomplish its mission of providing high-quality data. Unaddressed FR staffing gaps increase the risks of lower response rates on surveys and higher attrition of other field staff, who bear the burden of increased workloads. Developing and implementing a workforce plan for FRs will help the bureau address the issues we identify in this report.

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Katherine J. Wu @katherinejwu.com · Mar 7

if you've had an NIH grant terminated, I want to hear about it. Signal: katherinejwu.12

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Wei Yang Tham @wytham88.bsky.social · Mar 6

I love data visualization

Joey Politano🏳️‍🌈 @josephpolitano.bsky.social · Mar 6

Lmao I was joking about this but Sheinbaum literally did it today and it worked

A picture of Claudia Sheinbaum in front of a chart showing declining fentanyl seizures under Donald Trump.

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Joey Politano🏳️‍🌈 @josephpolitano.bsky.social · Mar 6

Lmao I was joking about this but Sheinbaum literally did it today and it worked

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Ben Golub @bengolub.bsky.social · Mar 3

worth seeing

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Wei Yang Tham @wytham88.bsky.social · Mar 2

Niche life advice: if you attend a dance class/social as part of a couple, don't stick together the whole time. Dancing with other ppl helps you learn faster, is more fun, and contributes to the public good of building a community

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Wei Yang Tham @wytham88.bsky.social · Feb 28

Heartbreaking

Katherine J. Wu @katherinejwu.com · Feb 27

I talked to NIH officials, current and former, about what's been happening inside the agency since the Trump administration shut down their grantmaking pipeline in January. Their stories showed just how willing our new leaders are to break the law: www.theatlantic.com/health/archi...

Inside the Collapse at NIH

Administration officials pressured NIH to avoid clear advice from the agency’s own lawyers to restart grant funding now.

www.theatlantic.com

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Katherine J. Wu @katherinejwu.com · Feb 27

I talked to NIH officials, current and former, about what's been happening inside the agency since the Trump administration shut down their grantmaking pipeline in January. Their stories showed just how willing our new leaders are to break the law: www.theatlantic.com/health/archi...

Inside the Collapse at NIH

Administration officials pressured NIH to avoid clear advice from the agency’s own lawyers to restart grant funding now.

www.theatlantic.com

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Wei Yang Tham @wytham88.bsky.social · Feb 25

chicken burger (sandwich! not combo!) from A&W costs $10 CAD

Surprised Pikachu GIF

ALT: Surprised Pikachu GIF

media.tenor.com

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Wei Yang Tham @wytham88.bsky.social · Feb 24

whoa

Michael Clemens @mclem.org · Feb 24

The world's top network of labor economists—@iza.org—will close permanently at the end of this year.

What a loss to research. Especially now when the rising waters of disinformation choke truth.

It is up to us, now, to begin the work to rebuild.

www.deutsche-post-stiftung.org/media/202502...

www.deutsche-post-stiftung.org

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Michael Clemens @mclem.org · Feb 24

The world's top network of labor economists—@iza.org—will close permanently at the end of this year.

What a loss to research. Especially now when the rising waters of disinformation choke truth.

It is up to us, now, to begin the work to rebuild.

www.deutsche-post-stiftung.org/media/202502...

www.deutsche-post-stiftung.org

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Wei Yang Tham @wytham88.bsky.social · Feb 21

"The agency didn’t have to fire its experts but decided to in the interest of fairness, a top NSF official told staffers"

huh???

City Nolan @ndhapple.bsky.social · Feb 20

“NSF fired about 10 percent of its staff at the end of Tuesday, removing 168 people who included most of the agency’s probationary employees and all of its experts, a class of contract workers who are specialists in niche scientific fields.” — www.politico.com/news/2025/02...

‘Cowardliness at the top’: Science agency staff revolt over cuts

At an emotional meeting, foundation officials announced layoffs for about 10 percent of their workforce and warned of more firings to come.

www.politico.com

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Wei Yang Tham @wytham88.bsky.social · Feb 21

"We didn’t know that studying Gila monster venom would lead to the invention of GLP-1...horseshoe crab blood would prove crucial to vaccine development, or...bacteria in geysers would lead to the development of PCR...on which much of modern molecular biology...rests."

Deena Mousa @deenamousa.com · Feb 20

Skepticism of government-funded scientific research is making the rounds again. In @asteriskmag.bsky.social, @lgilbert.co‬ and I write about why “weird” research pays off, and how the government is particularly well-positioned— better than the private sector—to fund it. 🧵
x.com/deenamousa/...

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Wei Yang Tham @wytham88.bsky.social · Feb 21

I watched the Kim's Convenience play and enjoyed it very much, but it also made me mourn what the TV show could've been

opposabletham.substack.com/p/kims-conve...

Kim's Convenience (the play)

The play laid bare what the sitcom could have been

opposabletham.substack.com