Lightnews — Scholar-powered news

Andrew J. Crawford @crawfordaj.bsky.social · Sep 9

@harryshearer.bsky.social
Apple podcasts seems to think Le Show is every 2 weeks 🙃

Reposted by Andrew J. Crawford

Jarome Ali 🇹🇹 🏳️‍🌈 @jarome.bsky.social · Aug 13

Pick an idiom: "more than meets the eye", "beauty more than skin [feather] deep" etc.

In work led by Rosalyn Price-Waldman, we describe a hidden (and ignored!) black or white layer found below the visible surface of bird feathers which helps make bird colours so striking!

🧪 🪶 #colsci

Songbirds play optical tricks to make their feather colors ‘pop’

Concealed black or white bands on feathers boost the vibrancy of bird plumage

www.science.org

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Andrew J. Crawford @crawfordaj.bsky.social · Aug 13

That was paper #1 of Prof. David B. Wake’s ‘reader’ for his famous class on Evolution at @ucberkeleyofficial.bsky.social
👍🏽

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Andrew J. Crawford @crawfordaj.bsky.social · Aug 10

“Midway upon the journey of our life

I found myself within a forest dark

For the straightforward pathway had been lost.”

— Dante Alighieri (Longfellow translation)

704 years on, I suspect this opening connects with more people than ever.

Drawing: Dante goes astray in a dark wood (Gustave Dore, 1870).

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Reposted by Andrew J. Crawford

Earth BioGenome Project 🌍 @ebpgenome.bsky.social · Jul 30

(1/2) 🧬 The African BioGenome Project 🌍 is training the next generation of genomics experts through groundbreaking, hands-on workshops across 50 African countries—laying the foundation for innovation and discovery across the continent.
🚀📖 Read the 2025 publication: go.nature.com/40INiek

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Andrew J. Crawford @crawfordaj.bsky.social · Aug 7

That frog in the photo is the famous Red-eyed Tree Frog (_Agalychnis callidryas_) from the Caribbean side of Costa Rica — yet no one (!) is currently working on a reference genome 🧬 for this 🐸. However, we have a group of researchers trying to make this happen. If you’d like to help out, DM me. 🤗

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Reposted by Andrew J. Crawford

Janet Carter @janetdcarter.bsky.social · Aug 1

Damn the fascist and complicit GOP.

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Andrew J. Crawford @crawfordaj.bsky.social · Jul 31

“We've gained notoriety
And caused much anxiety
In the Audubon Society
With our games
They call it impiety
And lack of propriety
And quite a variety
Of unpleasant names
But it's not against any religion
To want to dispose of a pigeon.”

Farewell to the master satirist and lyricist.

🕊️… ☠️

Banx @banxtoons.bsky.social · Jul 29

From today's @financialtimes.com #TomLehrer

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Andrew J. Crawford @crawfordaj.bsky.social · Jul 24

¿Named in honor of the flying Luck Dragon 🐉 in Never-ending Story?

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Andrew J. Crawford @crawfordaj.bsky.social · Jun 25

The call for sessions is open now!
September 2025: Call for abstracts
December 2025: Early bird registration opens.

World Biodiversity Forum @worldbioforum.bsky.social · Jun 6

🌎 🌿 We are open! Shape the next World Biodiversity Forum WBF2026 and submit a proposal for a session, a workshop or a cultural event now. Under the theme of Leading Transformation Together, WBF2026 will take place in ☀️Davos, Switzerland from 14-19 June 2026. tinyurl.com/ycxtzv7k

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Andrew J. Crawford @crawfordaj.bsky.social · Jun 6

The legendary Janzen & Hallwachs on the collapse of insects. “It’s the same sheet, same lights same place, looking over the same vegetation. Same time of year, same time of the moon cycle, everything about it is identical... There’s just no moths on that sheet.” www.theguardian.com/environment/...

‘Half the tree of life’: ecologists’ horror as nature reserves are emptied of insects

A new point in history has been reached, entomologists say, as climate-led species’ collapse moves up the food chain even in supposedly protected regions free of pesticides

www.theguardian.com

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Reposted by Andrew J. Crawford

Earth BioGenome Project 🌍 @ebpgenome.bsky.social · Apr 15

www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...

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Andrew J. Crawford @crawfordaj.bsky.social · May 7

Registration, abstracts, and symposium proposals now open for:
XIII Congreso Latinoamericano de Herpetología
23-27 Feb. 2026, in spectacular Costa Rica 🇨🇷
🐍🦎🐸🐢🐊
www.herpcr2026.com/inscription
¡Pura vida, Mae!

@sajherpetology.bsky.social @arc-trust.bsky.social
#Amphibians #Reptiles

Inscripción — XIII CLH

www.herpcr2026.com

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Reposted by Andrew J. Crawford

Earth BioGenome Project 🌍 @ebpgenome.bsky.social · Apr 15

Check out this recent publication from EBP all stars @crawfordaj.bsky.social sky.social @solenne-correard.bsky.social sky.social and @cmazzoni.bsky.social

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Andrew J. Crawford @crawfordaj.bsky.social · Mar 28

Dig the latest episode of the podcast “Entrespecies” from Gabriela Supelan and El Espectador newspaper about Digital Sequence Information 💾🧬ℹ️, Benefit Sharing, #COP16 and the #CaliFund, featuring Yours Truly, but in Spanish. _Espero que lo disfruten_.

open.spotify.com/episode/5GgZ...

¿Quién se beneficia de la información genética de nuestra biodiversidad?

Entrespecies Pódcast · Episode

open.spotify.com

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Reposted by Andrew J. Crawford

Tony Crawford @ttoonnyy.bsky.social · Mar 24

No surprise: Musk takes the side of autocracy in Turkey.

Musk’s X suspends opposition accounts in Turkey amid civil unrest

Suspensions affect accounts spreading information about the widespread demonstrations.

www.politico.eu

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Andrew J. Crawford @crawfordaj.bsky.social · Mar 17

Inter|National Under|Grad student travel awards to work in the collections at the Natural History Museums of LA Co. (NHMLAC):
nhm.org/student-coll...
Deadlines yearly, 1st of April & October.

Consult the collections:
nhm.org/research-col...

Give 'em a follow on IG: www.instagram.com/nhmla

Student Collections Study Award

The NHM Collections Study Awards provide funding for undergraduate and graduate students to visit and study the collections of the Natural History Museum of Los Angeles County, the La Brea Tar Pits & ...

nhm.org

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Reposted by Andrew J. Crawford

Dave Troy @davetroy.com · Mar 12

Trump, a cult leader, is testing the loyalty of his followers right now. Will they drink the poison? Will they accept the idea that this is a temporary setback in service of greater glory to come? This is what we are dealing with, and it is pure evil, at global scale.

Jonestown: “Those who do not remember the past are condemned to repeat it” sign, with dead strewn below.

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Andrew J. Crawford @crawfordaj.bsky.social · Mar 16

Indeed. Columbia U is the largest private real estate owner in NYC 🗽, by a factor two, with some 250 (?) properties holding 14 million sq ft.

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Andrew J. Crawford @crawfordaj.bsky.social · Mar 8

Easy: Florida! Just kiddin’, ya’ll. ;-)

Reposted by Andrew J. Crawford

Carl T. Bergstrom @carlbergstrom.com · Mar 6

Let's talk about this Nature piece in more detail.

I've rarely read something so anti-scientific anywhere short of the National Review.

www.nature.com/articles/d41...

Three AI-powered steps to faster, smarter peer review

Tired of spending countless hours on peer reviews? An AI-assisted workflow could help.

www.nature.com

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Andrew J. Crawford @crawfordaj.bsky.social · Mar 6

Caecilians are legless amphibians that are reeeeaaally hard to find — thus my enthusiasm with this beauty from Río Claro, Antioquia, Colombia that MSc student Ronald Díaz found removing a wheelbarrow,
then plastic sheeting,
then removing leaflitter,
then lifting old corrugated zinc roofing…

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Reposted by Andrew J. Crawford

PhytoKeys @phytokeys.pensoft.net · Feb 26

Researchers describe and illustrate Euonymus pushpagiriensis, a new species in the staff-vine family from the central Western Ghats of Karnataka, India.

doi.org/10.3897/phyt...

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Andrew J. Crawford @crawfordaj.bsky.social · Feb 25

Am I the last person to find out Musk has 2 left feet?

Marisa Kabas @marisakabas.bsky.social · Feb 24

This morning at Dept of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) HQ in DC as mandatory return to office began, this video played on loop for ~5 mins on screens throughout the building, per agency source.

Building staff couldn’t figure out how to turn it off so sent people to every floor to unplug TVs.

Reposted by Andrew J. Crawford

Everything’s ungodly @diffusedwavelength.bsky.social · Feb 25

Don’t know what to make of this:

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