Lightnews — Scholar-powered news

Reposted by Franziska Günl

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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derek guy @dieworkwear.bsky.social · 8d

Jane Goodall was my first childhood hero, as I loved animals as a kid and was inspired by her story. I still remember the National Geographic specials about her. RIP.

Jane Goodall reaches out and touches a small monkey.

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Friedemann Weber @friedemann.bsky.social · 29d

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

Dozens of heatwaves linked to carbon emissions from specific companies

Nearly one-quarter of heatwaves would have been ‘virtually impossible’ without global warming — and can be attributed to the emissions of individual energy producers.

www.nature.com

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Jeremy Keown @jeremykeown.bsky.social · Aug 13

Very pleased to have our new work out where we perform a structure/function study on the bornavirus polymerase complex with fantastic coauthors. Have a read www.nature.com/articles/s41... @warwicklifesci.bsky.social @loiccarrique.bsky.social @franziskaguenl.bsky.social

The structure of the mammalian bornavirus polymerase complex - Nature Communications

Borna disease virus 1 replicates and transcribes its negative sense RNA genome in the nucleus of infected cells. Here, the authors present the cryoEM structures of the large polymerase protein in comp...

www.nature.com

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Franziska Günl @franziskaguenl.bsky.social · Jul 31

How can we handle lab waste more sustainably? Saroj Saurya (@dunngogreen.bsky.social) and colleagues just published this interesting new piece! Have a read! 🌿

academic.oup.com/genetics/adv...

Toward more sustainable research: reducing the environmental impact when working with Drosophila

Abstract. The ever-increasing amounts of plastic waste and greenhouse gas emissions worldwide threaten our environment. Biomedical laboratories across the

academic.oup.com

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The Pirbright Institute @pirbrightinst.bsky.social · Jul 23

🆕 Study evaluates three vaccine candidates for one of the world’s most dangerous viruses, the Nipah virus.

An international team of scientists led by The Pirbright Institute achieves a breakthrough in controlling a deadly virus with pandemic potential ⬇️

#Zoonoses #Zoonotic #OneHealth

New study brings vaccine hopes for deadly Nipah virus

Scientists at The Pirbright Institute have taken a major step forward in tackling one of the world’s most dangerous viruses, the

www.pirbright.ac.uk

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Franziska Günl @franziskaguenl.bsky.social · Jun 18

Oh wow! This is such great news! Very well deserved!
Massive congrats to you. 🥳

Franziska Günl @franziskaguenl.bsky.social · Jun 3

Half way through the decade of action for road safety, and I can't say I feel massively safe cycling on Oxford's streets.
Maybe #worldbicycleday should be introduced here to raise awareness and direct our collective energy towards increasing the safety of non-motorized traffic?

WHO @who.int · Jun 3

Today is #WorldBicycleDay 🚲

Did you know❓ Cycle lanes count for just 0.2% of the current road infrastructure.

It’s time to demand safer streets that put the health & safety of pedestrians and cyclists first 👉bit.ly/4jPzXsa

Text reads: “The world would be better with more cycling lanes that PROTECT CYCLISTS. Yet very few roads have them!” Illustration shows a cyclist riding in a dedicated yellow bike lane separated from a car.

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Yi-Wei Chang @yiweichang.bsky.social · May 15

Excited to share our new @science.org paper! Led by postdocs Ruchao Peng and Xin Xu, we used cryo-EM/ET to reveal the influenza ribonucleoprotein complex structure and its strand-sliding mechanism for RNA synthesis, paving the way for new antivirals.
www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...

Molecular basis of influenza ribonucleoprotein complex assembly and processive RNA synthesis

Influenza viruses replicate and transcribe their genome in the context of a conserved ribonucleoprotein (RNP) complex. By integrating cryo–electron microscopy single-particle analysis and cryo–electro...

www.science.org

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Thelonevirologist @thelonevirologist.bsky.social · May 14

ANP32 proteins from ticks and vertebrates are key host factors for replication of Bourbon virus across species journals.asm.org/doi/10.1128/...

ANP32 proteins from ticks and vertebrates are key host factors for replication of Bourbon virus across species | Journal of Virology

Viral polymerases rely on cellular cofactors to support efficient transcription of viral genes and replication of the viral genome. The RNA-dependent RNA polymerase of influenza virus, an orthomyxovir...

journals.asm.org

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Kristian G. Andersen @kgandersen.bsky.social · May 8

“This is what I was expecting — an executive order banning gain-of-function research but defined in such a way that it bans all virology research,” says @ggronvall.bsky.social.

Yup.

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

Trump freezes ‘gain of function’ pathogen research ― threatening all US virology, critics say

An executive order suspends the use of federal funds for certain experiments on pathogens with pandemic potential. Critics say low-risk science could be affected too.

www.nature.com

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Jacquelyn Gill @jacquelyngill.bsky.social · May 9

This is an absolute disaster. If we don't stop this, they will turn NSF into a pawn of the Trump administration. There will be no research on climate, biodiversity, or anything that isn't eugenics or AI or how to more efficiently destroy the planet for profit.

This cannot be allowed to happen.

Exclusive: NSF faces radical shake-up as officials abolish its 37 divisions

Changes seen as a response to presidential directives on what research to fund

www.science.org

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Ervin Fodor @efodor.bsky.social · May 7

Exciting job opportunities!

Two postdoc positions are available in the Fodor Lab at
@dunnschool.bsky.social to study influenza virus transcription, genome replication, nuclear export and assembly.

More info: my.corehr.com/pls/uoxrecru...

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Franziska Günl @franziskaguenl.bsky.social · May 7

Super important piece on how structural issues in German academia enable toxic behaviour of only few people — and how that impacts the entire research culture.
Read more: www.nature.com/articles/d41...
Support: www.netzwerk-mawi.de/en/

Can Germany rein in its academic bullying problem?

Researchers and administrators are exploring ways to restructure a rigid hierarchy that can breed power abuses.

www.nature.com

Franziska Günl @franziskaguenl.bsky.social · Apr 19

Great to hear! Many congrats Sarah! 😊

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Michael Bang Petersen @m-b-petersen.bsky.social · Apr 18

This statement from the NSF is insane.

Science is, in essence, designed to separate the true from the false.

Understanding how falsehoods spread is key to the scientific endeavor. It is not a violation of free speech to be proven wrong.

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Darren Incorvaia @megadarren.bsky.social · Apr 1

If you're a scientist at the NIH or another HHS agency who was affected by today's RIF, I'd love to hear about the work you were doing and how important it was for our nation's health! I'm a staff writer at Fierce Biotech, and I can be reached through DM on BlueSky or securely on Signal at dinc.49

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Connor Bamford @connorggbamford.bsky.social · Mar 27

A must watch documentary on the original Nipah outbreak in pigs in Malaysia youtu.be/YyNdOQ-GFCM?...

The Terrifying Spread Of The Nipah Virus (1999)

YouTube video by Journeyman Pictures

youtu.be

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Hauke Hillen @haukehillen.bsky.social · Mar 10

The peer-revied version of our paper on the structure of the Nipah virus RNA polymerase in complex with RNA is out in @naturecomms.bsky.social. Congratulations to first-author @salafernanda.bsky.social and many thanks to the reviewers for their constructive comments!

www.nature.com/articles/s41...

Structural basis of Nipah virus RNA synthesis - Nature Communications

Sala et al. report the first structural snapshot of the Nipah virus RNA-dependent RNA polymerase in the actively elongating state, uncovering key mechanisms of RNA synthesis by non-segmented negative ...

www.nature.com

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Max Renner @maxrenner.bsky.social · Feb 26

"We at Nature denounce this assault on science. And we encourage the global research community, wherever they can, to voice their opposition."

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

Trump 2.0: an assault on science anywhere is an assault on science everywhere

US President Donald Trump is taking a wrecking ball to science and to international institutions. The global research community must take a stand against these attacks.

www.nature.com

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Chelsey Spriggs @drsprggs.bsky.social · Feb 3

ASM did a spotlight article on me last February and it has also been taken down as “under review”. Other spotlight articles are still up so not sure how else to interpret this besides the obvious. It feels pretty crappy to have been singled out and I won’t be engaging with them in the future.

Jennifer Goff, PhD @jlgoff.bsky.social · Feb 2

I want to expand on the extent to which IDEAA materials have been purged: I wrote an article last year for women’s history month on the history of women in antimicrobial development….DELETED.

Jennifer Goff, PhD @jlgoff.bsky.social · Feb 2

I’m on one of ASMs IDEAA committees and we have received 0 communication from ASM staff on why this is happening. I had to find out via social media. Extremely disappointing.

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Johanna Joyce @johannajoyce.bsky.social · Jan 24

Personally, I love it here 🦋 - and for science 🧪 its wonderful!

And its also increasingly getting better & better for other diverse and interesting random posts (non-science) as more and more join - lets hope the overall engagement and positivity remains!

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

Bluesky’s science takeover: 70% of Nature poll respondents use platform

Roughly 6,000 readers answered our poll, with many declaring that Bluesky was nicer, kinder and less antagonistic to science than X.

www.nature.com

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Marvin Tanenbaum @marvintanenbaum.bsky.social · Jan 21

Our new paper is out: "Mapping the complete influenza A virus infection cycle through single vRNP imaging". Combining newly-developed single-molecule imaging approaches with in situ viral transcriptomics, we identify numerous non-canonical infection pathways.

www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...

Mapping the complete influenza A virus infection cycle through single vRNP imaging

Cell-to-cell heterogeneity is a common feature of viral infection that can generate enormous complexity, complicating understanding of infection progression and interpretation of differences between v...

www.biorxiv.org

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Rhys Parry @rhyshparry.bsky.social · Jan 18

Here we provide evidence of henipaviruses in North America with the discovery of Camp hill virus in the Northern Short-Tailed Shrew, Alabama. Early release article available from EID
wwwnc.cdc.gov/eid/article/... #virology

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Marco Hein @marco.heinlab.org · Jan 14

Time to share our organelle proteome paper
out in @cellcellpress.bsky.social: doi.org/nzwz
We created a spatial map of human cells using organelle immunoprecipitation at scale.
Locate your fav protein among the 7,600 we mapped across 19 subcellular compartments: organelles.sf.czbiohub.org/

1/3 🧪

Graphical abstract of the Organelle Profiling paper, showing the workflow:
Endogenously tagged organelle library;
Native IP proteomics;
Data-driven graph clustering;
resulting in a subcellular proteome map with
more than 7,600 proteins localized across 19 subcellular compartments.

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