Lightnews — Scholar-powered news

Eoin Brodie @elbrodie.bsky.social · 26d

🚴‍♂️ In a few weeks, I’ll ride 200+ miles and climb 15,000 feet in the 14th edition of our event supporting Safe & Sound, an amazing nonprofit working to end child abuse in the Bay Area.

If you can, please consider supporting my ride—any contribution helps.

donate.safeandsound.org/fundraiser/6...

The 2025 Russian River Ride

donate.safeandsound.org

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Trends in Microbiology @cp-trendsmicrobiol.bsky.social · 29d

Volatile traits expand the microbial playbook

Microbial metabolic functions are increasingly conceptualized as fitness-regulating traits. However, volatile compounds (the volatilome), despite their key roles in metabolism and ecology, are often overlooked in trait-based frameworks. We propose that volatile traits not only reflect ecological strategies but also shape them by mediating responses to selection pressures. Their volatility affects diffusion, substrate access, and interactions across space, conferring selective advantages as resources or waste products. We outline approaches to incorporate volatile traits into predictive models to improve understanding of microbial selection and community dynamics. This integration enables a more holistic view of microbial life by accounting for the ecological and evolutionary consequences of volatile-mediated processes.

dlvr.it

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Eoin Brodie @elbrodie.bsky.social · Aug 18

Go Bears! 3/3 new faculty positions available at Berkeley ESPM. Come join one of the best Environmental Sciences Departments there is!

aprecruit.berkeley.edu/JPF05082

Assistant Professor - Forest Health - Department of Environmental Science, Policy, and Management

University of California, Berkeley is hiring. Apply now!

aprecruit.berkeley.edu

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Eoin Brodie @elbrodie.bsky.social · Aug 18

Go Bears! 2/3 new faculty positions available at Berkeley ESPM. Come join one of the best Environmental Sciences Departments there is!

aprecruit.berkeley.edu/JPF05084

Assistant Professor - Physical Climate Science - Department of Environmental Science, Policy, and Management

University of California, Berkeley is hiring. Apply now!

aprecruit.berkeley.edu

Eoin Brodie @elbrodie.bsky.social · Aug 18

Go Bears! 1/3 new faculty positions available at Berkeley ESPM. Come join one of the best Environmental Sciences Departments there is!

aprecruit.berkeley.edu/JPF05078

Assistant Professor - Environmental Geochemistry - Department of Environmental Science, Policy, and Management

University of California, Berkeley is hiring. Apply now!

aprecruit.berkeley.edu

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Nature Microbiology @natmicrobiol.nature.com · Apr 4

📝 In this month's editorial, we talk about the power of mathematical modeling 🧮, its importance in understanding of complex microbiology 🦠 , and how we assess papers addressing mathematical modeling.

Read more: www.nature.com/articles/s41...

Share your thoughts in the replies!

#MicroSky #MathSky

Model behaviour - Nature Microbiology

Mathematical models can distil complex systems into their key components, posit theories that spark experimental research and forecast future events. We discuss the power of models to address pressing...

www.nature.com

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Guillaume Chesneau @chesneau-g.bsky.social · Apr 11

🚨Excited to share our new publication! MetaFlowTrain, a highly parallelized and modular fluidic system to study exometabolite interactions between microbes-microbes-plants 🌱
@hacquardst.bsky.social @herpell.bsky.social S.Wolf S.Perin @mpipz.bsky.social
www.youtube.com/watch?v=gNUf...
🧵Thread 5/5:

MetaFlowTrain : A Highly-Parallelized and Modular Fluidic System.

YouTube video by Guillaume Chesneau

www.youtube.com

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Peter Gleick @petergleick.bsky.social · Jun 6

An important message on the need for Congress to step up and save American science by two former presidential science advisors.
thebulletin.org/2025/06/time...

Time for Congress to save American science … and the nation

We believe the best hope for saving science and, perhaps, saving our form of democracy, is convincing at least a couple dozen Republican members of Congress that it’s up to them—that the stakes requir...

thebulletin.org

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Eoin Brodie @elbrodie.bsky.social · Apr 11

US students. Looking to apply to graduate school? Had an offer rescinded recently? The University of British Columbia in Canada will re-open the application portal in some departments for US students from April 14-18.
Details: www.grad.ubc.ca/us-applicant...
#ubc #AcademicSky #PhDSky #ScienceSky

US Applicant Week

www.grad.ubc.ca

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Eoin Brodie @elbrodie.bsky.social · Apr 11

Very clever design and nicely presented. 👍

Guillaume Chesneau @chesneau-g.bsky.social · Apr 11

🚨Excited to share our new publication! MetaFlowTrain, a highly parallelized and modular fluidic system to study exometabolite interactions between microbes-microbes-plants 🌱
@hacquardst.bsky.social @herpell.bsky.social S.Wolf S.Perin @mpipz.bsky.social
www.youtube.com/watch?v=gNUf...
🧵Thread 5/5:

MetaFlowTrain : A Highly-Parallelized and Modular Fluidic System.

YouTube video by Guillaume Chesneau

www.youtube.com

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Eoin Brodie @elbrodie.bsky.social · Apr 4

Outstanding work. Congrats @benjwoodcroft.bsky.social and co-authors!! 🔥

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Eoin Brodie @elbrodie.bsky.social · Apr 4

So glad to see this editorial with helpful insights into how Nature Microbiology editors view submissions with numerical modeling. Models are critical to understanding complex systems with non-linear behavior and feedbacks - our brains struggle with this 😵‍💫

Nature Microbiology @natmicrobiol.nature.com · Apr 4

📝 In this month's editorial, we talk about the power of mathematical modeling 🧮, its importance in understanding of complex microbiology 🦠 , and how we assess papers addressing mathematical modeling.

Read more: www.nature.com/articles/s41...

Share your thoughts in the replies!

#MicroSky #MathSky

Model behaviour - Nature Microbiology

Mathematical models can distil complex systems into their key components, posit theories that spark experimental research and forecast future events. We discuss the power of models to address pressing...

www.nature.com

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ssolo.bsky.social @ssolo.bsky.social · Apr 4

Dating Bacteria is hard due to the lack of maxima. Assuming aerobes likely postdated the GOE gave us better resolved ages, but also surprised us, but not Dr Dayhoff, showing O2 use predated its atmospheric rise by 900 Mys and helped oxygenic photosynthesis to evolve. www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...

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Eoin Brodie @elbrodie.bsky.social · Mar 26

🙏

Eoin Brodie @elbrodie.bsky.social · Mar 26

Posting for Dr Nicole Hynson at the University of Hawai’i Manoa. She is looking for a postdoc on a cool project on fungal mediated vegetation shifts. You get to work in Hawai’i and Australia - details here ➡️ hynsonlab.com/2024/07/25/w...

We’re looking for postdocs!

Interested in joining The Hynson lab? Please read over this ad for highly qualified Postdoctoral Researchers to work on a Department of Energy (DOE)-funded study titled “How do plant-associated fungi ...

hynsonlab.com

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Eoin Brodie @elbrodie.bsky.social · Mar 21

Zhen Li - www.linkedin.com/in/zhen-li-9...

www.linkedin.com

Eoin Brodie @elbrodie.bsky.social · Mar 21

You know the way we all talk about leveraging 'omics information to improve ecosystem/biogeochemical model performance - well here's a step in that direction - led by Zhen Li integrating across many scientific teams to make this happen www.nature.com/articles/s41...

A framework for integrating genomics, microbial traits, and ecosystem biogeochemistry - Nature Communications

Microbes drive the Earth’s biogeochemical cycles. Here, Li et al. present a framework for integrating genome-inferred microbial kinetic traits into ecosystem mechanistic models, and use it to benchmar...

www.nature.com

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Eoin Brodie @elbrodie.bsky.social · Feb 5

😱

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Eoin Brodie @elbrodie.bsky.social · Feb 4

Is that new? Dormancy as an example?

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Eoin Brodie @elbrodie.bsky.social · Feb 4

What’s in it? 🤢

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Denise Akob @deniseakob.bsky.social · Feb 3

The 2025 Applied and Environmental Microbiology Gordon Research Conference & Seminar (AEM GRC/GRS) will be held in July!

Apply soon - we expect the conference to fill up quickly so please apply early to guarantee a spot.

Hope to see you at Mount Holyoke College!

www.grc.org/applied-and-...

2025 Applied and Environmental Microbiology Conference GRC

The 2025 Gordon Research Conference on Applied and Environmental Microbiology will be held in South Hadley, Massachusetts. Apply today to reserve your spot.

www.grc.org

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Botanical Society of America @botsocamerica.bsky.social · Feb 3

The Rare Plant RaMP offers a 1-year, fully funded research experience in rare plant science at 4 U.S. botanic gardens! Open to post-baccalaureates, with mentorship, networking, & science communication training. Apply by March 14, 2025!

Details: atlantabg.org/conservation...

Atlanta Botanical Garden | RaMP: Post-Baccalaureate Training and Research Program in Rare Plant Science and Conservation

The mission of the Atlanta Botanical Garden is to develop and maintain plant collections for display, education, research, conservation and enjoyment.

atlantabg.org

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Eoin Brodie @elbrodie.bsky.social · Feb 2

I work with many wonderful members of the federal workforce. Thoughtful, smart, and dedicated people all across the US. What they are going through now is appalling.

Check out the table on what Agencies are best staffed. Says a lot about priorities.

www.npr.org/2025/01/31/n...

Trump wants to cut the federal workforce. Who they are and what that means

President Trump's efforts to cut the federal workforce by 10% might not save as much money as hoped and could have unintended consequences. NPR explains why.

www.npr.org

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Eoin Brodie @elbrodie.bsky.social · Jan 24

T minus 10 days until move-in. 🥳
BioEPIC 💡🦠🔬🧬🌱💧~ 👬👭👫

storymaps.arcgis.com/stories/6f1d...

Biological and Environmental Program Integration Center

The new BioEPIC facility will enable capabilities to sense, study, and simulate biological-environmental interactions across scales.

storymaps.arcgis.com

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Eoin Brodie @elbrodie.bsky.social · Jan 24

100%

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Roland Hatzenpichler @environmicrobio.bsky.social · Jan 24

Great new paper by @mjwilkins.bsky.social and @kcwrighton.bsky.social labs on wetland methane cycling. www.nature.com/articles/s41...

Metabolic interactions underpinning high methane fluxes across terrestrial freshwater wetlands - Nature Communications

The authors created a multisite database to link microbial methane-cycling networks to CH4 fluxes across diverse wetlands, revealing differences in microbial cross-feeding and methanogen dynamics that...

www.nature.com

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Axel Visel @axelvisel.bsky.social · Jan 23

Touring BioEPIC, the new Biological and Environmental Program Integration Center on the @berkeleylab.lbl.gov campus.

Great views of the San Francisco East Bay and the Golden Gate Bridge in the distance.

#BestViewFromALab

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Eoin Brodie @elbrodie.bsky.social · Dec 21

+1000% and Cam Newport’s book is a must read. www.goodreads.com/book/show/19...

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Franciska de Vries 🟥 @frantecol.bsky.social · Nov 28

Science takes time - a lot of time. Time that is more and more difficult to make available because of increased workloads. Time that exceeds the temporary contracts of postdocs and PhDs.

I'll illustrate this using our paper published in Nature yesterday. 🧵 (1/x)
www.nature.com/articles/s41...

Soil microbiomes show consistent and predictable responses to extreme events - Nature

Soils from 30 grasslands across Europe were subjected to 4 contrasting extreme climatic events under drought, flood, freezing and heat conditions, with the results suggesting that soil microbiomes fro...

www.nature.com

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Eoin Brodie @elbrodie.bsky.social · Nov 19

We are recruiting for a Research Associate focused on understanding soil microbial composition and function in both natural and managed ecosystems. More details and application can be found here: jobs.lbl.gov/jobs/climate...

Climate & Ecosystems Research Associate in Bay Area, California, United States

We are seeking a Research Associate to support several funded Department of Energy (DOE) projects focused on understanding soil microbial composition....

jobs.lbl.gov

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