Lightnews — Scholar-powered news

Reposted by Dr. Diana Li

Brett "Solidarity 2025" Banditelli @banditelli.org · 2h

Still figuring out how to recolor these to make one of those cool black background with high contrast lighting shots, so for now enjoy a snowy egret's mid air dance moves. 🪶

A snowy egret looking like it's spinning around with its legs nearly fully extended below it above a body of water

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Reposted by Dr. Diana Li

Nat Clarke @natclarke.bsky.social · 1d

🚨 My lab is hiring at all levels!

Interested in animal origins & evolutionary cell biology?

I'm recruiting a postdoc, PhD students & a research assistant to study the molecular evolution of cell adhesion using marine invertebrates + comparative genomics.

🔗: clarkelab.com/join/

Please repost!

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Dr. Diana Li @dianateuthis.bsky.social · 1d

🐙🐙🐙
Happy world octopus day from me and these three fridge magnets that somehow perfectly encapsulate how I feel about the world these days 😱

🦑

Three octopus magnets lined up vertically on a table. There’s an orange one, blue, and sparkly grey. Their eyes look wide open and shocked. They are holding up two arms to touch their mantle and honestly look like the dude from Edvard Munch’s The Scream

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Dr. Diana Li @dianateuthis.bsky.social · 2d

Bold of you to skeet this during Nobel prize week and just assume we won’t figure it out, Sarah

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Dr. Diana Li @dianateuthis.bsky.social · 3d

I can’t stop laughing at the pic I took trying to capture the bright, radiant beauty of tonight’s full moon lol

This featureless, washed-out dot and I wish you a happy mid-autumn festival 🥮

A feeble attempt at photographing the majestic full moon tonight. Instead, it looks like a completely featureless small white circle against a pitch black sky.

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Reposted by Dr. Diana Li

Jeremy BOO! Yoder 🎃💀🕷️ @jbyoder.org · 3d

Looks like "a health professional" can simply be the pharmacist who's giving you the booster? But this creates the appearance of an additional hurdle for something that was not exactly easy to do to be begin with

NPR @npr.org · 3d

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention accepted a controversial recommendation from outside vaccine advisers to tighten guidelines for the COVID vaccine.

The CDC says people must consult a health professional before COVID shot

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention accepted a controversial recommendation from outside vaccine advisers to tighten guidelines for the COVID vaccine.

n.pr

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Reposted by Dr. Diana Li

Alison Fisk @alisonfisk.bsky.social · 3d

Spectacular googly-eyed octopus does battle with a lobster in this 2,000 year-old Roman mosaic from Pompeii! 🐙 🦞

Fantastic fishy onlookers too! 👀

From the House of the Geometric Mosaics. Now at the Museo Archeologico Nazionale, Naples.
📷 by me

#MosaicMonday
#Archaeology

My photo shows a polychrome mosaic depicting Mediterranean marine life using earthy-coloured tesserae (mosaic tiles) against a black tessarae background. At the centre of the mosaic is a pale-coloured octopus composed of off-white and light brown tesserae with some of its writhing tentacles wrapped around the body of a lobster composed of light red, and pinky-brown tesserae. The octopus has an egg shaped body/head and it stares at the viewer with large eyes made of brown and pink circles with black centres.

The octopus and lobster are surrounded by various species of large and small Mediterranean fish and a mollusc, including an eel and a flat fish. On the left hand side of the scene there is a small kingfisher bird on top of a rock. Some of the fish appear to be watching the fight between the octopus and the lobster

This mosaic comes from the House of the Geometric Mosaics in Pompeii. Now on display at the Museo Archeologico Nazionale, Naples.

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Reposted by Dr. Diana Li

KOJAMF🤘🖤🤘 @kojamf.bsky.social · 4d

Dr. Jane Goodall filmed an interview with Netflix in March 2025 that she understood would only be released after her death.

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Reposted by Dr. Diana Li

Mallory Harris, PhD @malar0ne.bsky.social · 4d

IMO this hasn't gotten enough attention: a recent memo at NIH announces that peer review will be devalued in determining which grants get funded, granting more power to political appointees to make decisions based on the admin's whims over scientific merit

kffhealthnews.org/news/article...

Changes at NIH Give Political Appointees Greater Power To Fund or Block Research - KFF Health News

The National Institutes of Health’s long-held standard of peer review for grantmaking has been subverted by President Donald Trump and NIH Director Jay Bhattacharya, who gave unprecedented power to po...

kffhealthnews.org

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Reposted by Dr. Diana Li

Steve Haddock @stevehaddock.bsky.social · 5d

For CTENOPHORE DAY, a little survey:
Which end of this fishing Pleurobrachia is the mouth on? Please just "vote" in the comments — no definitive answers. 🦑🧪🌊

P.S. this is one of my earliest #ctenophore photos, shot on film in a home-built kreisel.

P.P.S. Legit data-gathering for a future paper.

A spherical comb jelly floating against a dark background, with its tentacles deployed, tentilla (side branches) fanned out. There is a number 1 above the body and number 2 below the body. Photo by S. Haddock taken around 1990.

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Reposted by Dr. Diana Li

JA Fields | NonCompliantCyborg @noncompliantcyborg.bsky.social · 5d

Happy Ctenophore Day!
🐙🦑🧪

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Reposted by Dr. Diana Li

Matt Zoller Seitz @mattzollerseitz.bsky.social · 7d

Please use alt text when posting illustrations or photos or other images. I realize it feels like an inconvenience if you didn't ever do it at the other place, but folks who need it are a zillion times more inconvenienced every single day.

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Reposted by Dr. Diana Li

Alejandra Caraballo @esqueer.net · 6d

Earle-Sears has exclusively focused on anti-trans messaging in her political ad spend and it has resulted in her losing by 12 points. This anti-trans stuff is not popular, people want to hear about actual problems.

www.washingtonpost.com/dc-md-va/202...

Spanberger holds wide lead in Virginia governor’s race, Post-Schar School poll finds

Democrat Abigail Spanberger is up 12 points over Republican Winsome Earle-Sears in campaign where the economy weighs heavily on voters’ minds, a Washington Post-Schar School poll found.

www.washingtonpost.com

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Reposted by Dr. Diana Li

Danna Staaf @dannastaaf.bsky.social · 7d

I just couldn't stop thinking about how weird sperm whale mouths are and yet how perfectly shaped for inserting giant squid into

A scanned pencil sketch of a faceoff between a giant squid and a sperm whale. The squid looks cute and alarmed and its mantle is labeled TAB A. The whale looks cute and happy and its mouth is labeled SLOT A. Tab A does look like it would fit perfectly in slot A. The squid says "I strongly disagree with this diagram" and the whale responds "You can't disagree with evolution."

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Reposted by Dr. Diana Li

Mariam Aly @mariamaly.bsky.social · 7d

Are you an early career scholar interested in learning more about peer review?

Join us for our virtual @reviewerzero.bsky.social workshop! We will help you understand how peer review works and give advice on responding to reviewer comments.

9-10:30am PT / 12-1:30pm ET on October 30th. Register👇🏼

Welcome! You are invited to join a meeting: Peer Review 101. After registering, you will receive a confirmation email about joining the meeting.

northwestern.zoom.us

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Reposted by Dr. Diana Li

Danna Staaf @dannastaaf.bsky.social · 7d

So keen to read THE RADIANT SEA by @stevehaddock.bsky.social & Sönke Johnsen! In the introduction, @helenscales.bsky.social says it's like having the authors "looking over your shoulder and telling stories," an experience I've been lucky enough to get with Steve. Also, COVER CEPHALOPOD 🐙🦑🌊

Photo of the cover of THE RADIANT SEA: COLOR AND LIGHT IN THE UNDERWATER WORLD by Steven Haddock and Sonke Johnsen, Foreword by Helen Scales.

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Reposted by Dr. Diana Li

Science Vs @sciencevs.bsky.social · 8d

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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Reposted by Dr. Diana Li

Anita Devineni @anitadevineni.bsky.social · 9d

My department at Emory is a hiring a tenure-track neuroscientist!

Anyone who's talked to me in the last 4 years knows I cannot say enough good things about my dept and the neuroscience community here. My colleagues are so wonderfully supportive. Postdocs, please apply!

apply.interfolio.com/174371

Apply - Interfolio {{$ctrl.$state.data.pageTitle}} - Apply - Interfolio

apply.interfolio.com

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Reposted by Dr. Diana Li

Beth Lew-Williams @bethlewwilliams.bsky.social · 10d

This NPR story highlights the AMAZING archeological work of Laura Ng @cocalola.bsky.social. Laura has been tracking down descendants of the original Chinatown, including my dad (who gets a few words in at the end). www.kuow.org/stories/wyom...

Wyoming town erects new monument to violent, anti-immigrant history

At a time when President Trump is going after foreign laborers in the U.S, and saying unflattering accounts of U.S. history should be removed, Rock Springs, Wyoming has put up a new monument to ethnic...

www.kuow.org

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Reposted by Dr. Diana Li

🌻OK MR. SUNSHINE!🌻 @entobiologist.bsky.social · 9d

hello fellow ecologists has anyone successfully applied to the grfp (in its current format) and would be willing to send me their application materials for my own reference? many thanks!! 🧪

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Reposted by Dr. Diana Li

Jeremy BOO! Yoder 🎃💀🕷️ @jbyoder.org · 10d

New today: We're petitioning NSF to revert GRFP eligibility criteria to last year's terms, to avoid pulling the rug out from under the earliest of early-career scientists who had every reason to think they'd be able to apply this year. Sign and spread the word!

laurenkuehne.github.io/grfpChanges/

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Reposted by Dr. Diana Li

Noah Bressman, PhD @noahwithfish.bsky.social · 10d

These changes pretty much mean that if you enroll in an MS program, you will never get the NSF GRFP. The GRFP more typically covers PhD projects than MS because they cover 3 years of funding, so you are already less likely to get it for an MS project, but now you can’t apply if you have an MS…

Erica D. Pratt @pratted.bsky.social · 13d

Announcing such a major change to NSF GRFP this late in the cycle is incredibly cruel. 2nd yr students (mine included) have been working so hard on their proposals despite ongoing uncertainty. They are driven and passionate about being outstanding scientists and helping those coming up behind them.

This means individuals in the following statuses at the time of application are eligible:

Undergraduate in the final (senior) year of a bachelor’s degree program
Bachelor’s degree-holder with NO enrollment in a graduate degree program (non-degree graduate coursework allowed)
Individual enrolled in a joint bachelor’s-master’s degree program with at least three undergraduate years completed
First-year graduate student in their first graduate degree program with less than one academic year completed in the degree program (according to institution’s academic calendar)
Individuals enrolled in joint bachelor’s-master’s degree programs are considered graduate students. For GRFP, joint bachelor’s-master’s degrees are defined as degrees concurrently pursued and awarded.
Not be a current NSF employee.

Applications that do not meet eligibility requirements will be returned without review as being ineligible for a fellowship.

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Reposted by Dr. Diana Li

Skype a Scientist @skypeascientist.bsky.social · 10d

Alrght everybody, get your Tin Can Telephones out. We need your help!

We reach new people by word of mouth. Send all your educator friends this pic! Teachers, librarians, scout troop leaders, etc! We offer our program for free, so we need help getting the word out without advertising $$.

A purple and red octopus talk to each other on the tin can telephone. Purple octopus says “want to connect your students with real
Scientists?” Then red octopus says “Skype a scientist matches groups with scientists for virtual q&as. It’s free!” And then an orange flapjack octopus says “get a match at skypeascientist.com”

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Reposted by Dr. Diana Li

Black in Natural History Museums @blackinnhms.bsky.social · 11d

Join our 2025 hybrid BlackInNHMs week, including a 2 day convening at the American Museum of Natural History. Sign up for our BioBlitz, complete our scavenger hunt, share with your colleagues and support us to help power our mission. Event details: tinyurl.com/2025BlackInN..., tinyurl.com/2025BINHMs

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Reposted by Dr. Diana Li

Standplaats Kraków @standplaatskrk.pl · Dec 13

puddinwife

Boom boom boom boom
I want to be entombed

effemimaniac

sheltered from the weather
locked underground forever
boom boom boom boom
I want to be entombed
my final disposition
a windowless stone room

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