Lightnews — Scholar-powered news

Les Sutton @lessutton.bsky.social · 4d

Groves lab wins best incubator for Squid housing with The Squincubator

Black + Decker wine refrigerator set to 65F for squid housing, appropriately titled The Squincubator 2.0

Reposted by Les Sutton

Jeremy Berg @jeremymberg.bsky.social · 8d

9/14

While it is easy to focus on the apparent lack of moral courage shown by the scientific establishment, I am more struck by two other aspects of these reactions. The first is the lack of utilization of scholarship to guide their reactions. There is a substantial body of scholarly literature about the value of participation of individuals from diverse groups in science, particularly health-related research. Moreover, many universities have scholars, including historians, sociologists, and lawyers, who have devoted their efforts to studying the consolidation of power by authoritarian governments. What is happening in America is not new. It has occurred, with variations, in many other countries. Since individuals and groups involved with science should be well equipped to explore and understand scholarly writings, I expected more efforts to use this information to shape and articulate their responses.

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Reposted by Les Sutton

Jeremy Berg @jeremymberg.bsky.social · 8d

6/14

In communicating with some of the scientists affected by grant terminations, it was striking (but not surprising) that many felt abandoned by their institutions and the scientific establishment at large. This was fueled, in part, by the contrast between this acquiescence and the rapid institutional responses, including lawsuits, after the administration had proposed a cap on the rate of reimbursement for so-called indirect costs of research. The scientific establishment had the capacity to push back vigorously when some of their values (financial viability) were threatened but could not seem to muster much energy when other principles were under assault.

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Reposted by Les Sutton

Jeremy Berg @jeremymberg.bsky.social · 8d

5/14

The programs had very broad eligibility criteria that included being a member of a racial or ethnic group that was historically underrepresented in research, but eligibility also included those from disadvantaged educational or socioeconomic backgrounds and those with a physical disability or other factors, or just an interest in working on the biomedical workforce. These grants were not awarded through illegal, “racial preference” programs, but rather through highly competitive, merit-based processes. But rather than articulating and defending these goals and processes, many parts of the scientific establishment seemed to be rushing to violate one of the first tenets of historian Timothy Snyder’s important book On Tyranny: Do not obey in advance.

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Les Sutton @lessutton.bsky.social · 8d

Love love love working with undergrads. Mentorship opportunity in the Solnica-Krezel lab, TAing for @biyolokum.bsky.social's regeneration for undergrads class, I'm having so much fun. I miss the excitement and curiosity without worrying about funding or practicality. What a great space to be in.

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Reposted by Les Sutton

Princess Vimentin PhD | Cancer Biologist @princess-vimentin.bsky.social · 27d

SHE FOUND OUT ON TWITTER

There was no direct communication about the changes in vaccine policy with Deb Houry, the CHIEF MEDICAL OFFICER.

This is not transparency.

Do you see what is happening here?

Experts hired to do the job are not allowed to do their jobs. 🧪

Senator Patty Murray @murray.senate.gov · 27d

THE STATE OF PUBLIC HEALTH IN AMERICA: I asked former CDC official Deb Houry how she found out about the updated COVID vaccine guidance.

She found out by tweet. On social media.

Her title? Chief Medical Officer.

Vaccine policy by tweet is not radical transparency—it's ABSURD and reckless.

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Les Sutton @lessutton.bsky.social · 27d

Me in the lab blasting Touch My Body by Mariah Carey in my headphones while running genotyping

a boy wearing headphones is standing in a classroom

ALT: a boy wearing headphones is standing in a classroom

media.tenor.com

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Les Sutton @lessutton.bsky.social · Aug 26

First day of TAing in the books, I'm so excited to work with undergrads again 🥹 so cool to see students excited to ask questions about the material after lecture

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Les Sutton @lessutton.bsky.social · Aug 26

Honestly so cool to see @elisabethbik.bsky.social talk at WashU today

Speaker Elisabeth Bik at Washington University in St Louis giving a talk on science misconduct. Her slide reads:
- science is about discovering the truth
- rewards are high, consequences are small
- mass-production of fake papers by organized networks
- focus less on quantity, more on reproducibility
- it takes a village: role of reviewers, journals, institutions
- tremendous cost of science misconduct (scientists, critics, science)

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Les Sutton @lessutton.bsky.social · Aug 26

Little wins of the week, got my first T32 today 🥹

Reposted by Les Sutton

Carl T. Bergstrom @carlbergstrom.com · Jul 24

Do not let any LLM serve as a form of epistemic grounding for society.

Carl T. Bergstrom @carlbergstrom.com · Jul 24

New Trump EO: "when ideological biases or social agendas are built into AI models, they can distort the quality and accuracy of the output"

...so henceforth the US government won't do business with you unless your LLM is built to echo our ideological bias and promote our social agenda.

Preventing Woke AI in the Federal Government

By the authority vested in me as President by the Constitution and the laws of the United States of America, it is hereby ordered: Section 1. Purpose.

www.whitehouse.gov

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Reposted by Les Sutton

Dr. Cat Hicks @grimalkina.bsky.social · Jul 25

We truly live in the age of miracles that our ancestors could only dream of, and our response has been to try to ruin people's lives, destroy the ecosystem that creates breakthroughs, and end scientific career pathways to make sure our children don't get anything like this.

JLRay @jlray.bsky.social · Jul 25

Wow. Scientists have edited mosquito DNA to prevent the spread of malaria to humans "while supporting essential physiological functions... and negligible fitness costs" to the mosquito population.

Potentially ending the mosquito-born spread of malaria to humans.

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

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Reposted by Les Sutton

Jeremy Berg @jeremymberg.bsky.social · Jul 25

So this happened... Useful if you want to make economic (and health) arguments about the importance of NIH.

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Les Sutton @lessutton.bsky.social · Jul 22

QE sponsored by BeatKing

Les Sutton @lessutton.bsky.social · Jul 22

y'know I always thought scientists had some serious stuff goin in their headphones but I've been sat writing this specific aims for the last 2 hours blaring some krumping remixes and 2000's rap and I'm all the more productive

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Les Sutton @lessutton.bsky.social · Jul 22

when Camus wrote about Sisyphus he was talking about my PI convincing me my idea isn't silly and is worth investing into for the 80th time this week

Reposted by Les Sutton

Jeff Farrell @jeffreyafarrell.bsky.social · Jun 13

If you love Daniocell, but wish it could generate analyses specific to YOUR genes & cell types of interest, check out DaniocellDesktop - a new point-and-click app for Mac and Windows that enables reanalysis of the Daniocell data without programming: daniocell.nichd.nih.gov/desktop/ (1/4)

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Les Sutton @lessutton.bsky.social · Jul 22

When Camus wrote about Sisyphus he was talking about analyzing all the data you collected in your experiments

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Reposted by Les Sutton

Society for Developmental Biology @socdevbio.bsky.social · Jun 6

✨#FluorescenceFriday brings you a glowing Berghia stephanieae juvenile! This stunning sea slug is lit up with Anti-α-Tubulin 🟢, revealing the dense network of cilia that help it glide across surfaces. 🐌💫 Image taken by @Luiza-O-Saad.bsky.social
#Microscopy #DevBio

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Les Sutton @lessutton.bsky.social · Jun 16

Got bored at work and made an anti-AI plugin for Firefox called Can't You Google That?

Go to ai site, autopopulates a new tab that prompts you to maybe reconsider

addons.mozilla.org/en-US/androi...

Reposted by Les Sutton

Rachel 👩🏻‍🔬 @rachelbiology.bsky.social · Jun 13

I’m thrilled to share my first big paper is live on @nature.com SMB! I poured my heart into this project while I was a tech, and I’m so happy it’s out in the world now.

Plus, how often does someone get to say they published with their two best friends? 🎉

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

Multiplex and multimodal mapping of variant effects in secreted proteins via MultiSTEP - Nature Structural & Molecular Biology

Multiplexed assays of variant effect can resolve clinical variants but are incompatible with secreted proteins. Here Popp et al. develop MultiSTEP, a generalizable surface-tethering method to assess v...

www.nature.com

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Les Sutton @lessutton.bsky.social · Jun 13

So so so proud of my friend @rachelbiology.bsky.social on her publication in Nature Structural & Molecular Biology working on understanding variant pathogenicity in secreted proteins!

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

Multiplex and multimodal mapping of variant effects in secreted proteins via MultiSTEP - Nature Structural & Molecular Biology

Multiplexed assays of variant effect can resolve clinical variants but are incompatible with secreted proteins. Here Popp et al. develop MultiSTEP, a generalizable surface-tethering method to assess v...

www.nature.com

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Reposted by Les Sutton

🕸️jess m. 🎃🍂 @jametc.bsky.social · Jun 2

reminder, bsky has a clever way to display pronouns that's built in!

but you only see them if you yourself opt in, so please feel free to here by subscribing and then choosing which applies!!

@pronouns.diy

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Reposted by Les Sutton

SK Winnicki, PhD 🏳️‍⚧️ @skwinnicki.bsky.social · Jun 2

We need Pride because in the year 2025 people (in this case actor Jonathon Joss, you may recognize him from his role in Parks and Recreation) are still being murdered in what was allegedly a homophobic hate crime.

Facebook post from his husband:

Fes, the Tiefling Warlock @fes4ever.bsky.social · Jun 2

For those that need alt text

Post says: Statement from Tristan Kern de Gonzales
Husband of Jonathan Joss
My husband Jonathan Joss and I were involved in a shooting while checking the mail at the site of our former home. That home was burned down after over two years of threats from people in the area who repeatedly told us they would set it on fire. We reported these threats to law enforcement multiple times and nothing was done.
Throughout that time we were harassed regularly by individuals who made it clear they did not accept our relationship. Much of the harassment was openly homophobic.
When we returned to the site to check our mail we discovered the skull of one of our dogs and its harness placed in clear view. This caused both of us severe emotional distress. We began yelling and crying in response to the pain of what we saw.
While we were doing this a man approached us. He started yelling violent homophobic slurs at us. He then raised the gun in his lap and fired.

Jonathan and I had no weapons. We were not threatening anyone. We were grieving. We were standing side by side. When the man fired Jonathan pushed me out of the way. He saved my life.
Jonathan is my husband. He gave me more love in our time together than most people ever get. We were newlyweds. We picked Valentines Day. We were in the process of looking for a trailer and planning our future.
He was murdered by someone who could not stand the sight of two men loving each other.
I was with him when he passed. I told him how much he was loved.
To everyone who supported him, his fans, his friends, know that he valued you deeply. He saw you as family.
My focus now is on protecting Jonathan's legacy and honoring the life we built together.
If your concern is how someone coped with trauma or how loudly they speak when recounting injustice and being ignored by authorities then you never truly cared about my husband.
Jonathan saved my life. I will carry that forward. I will protect what he built.

- Tristan Kern de Gonzales

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Reposted by Les Sutton

Sarah McAnulty, Ph.D. @sarahmackattack.bsky.social · May 27

If you wanna join the monthly squad of people supporting us so that I have a little more safety though... ya know, that *would* be sick. $5/month spread over 1000 people makes a huge difference in our stability.

givebutter.com/SupportSAS25

Support Skype a Scientist!

By Skype a Scientist

givebutter.com

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