Lightnews — Scholar-powered news

Matthew R. Helmus @mrhelmus.bsky.social · Aug 14

An undergrad, majors, ecology lecture course is what I have in mind, but anything really can be adapted. I found paper inspirational.

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Matthew R. Helmus @mrhelmus.bsky.social · Aug 14

Are there resources for teaching on this topic?

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Matthew R. Helmus @mrhelmus.bsky.social · Aug 11

Same here.

Brittany Barker @brittanysbarker.bsky.social · Jul 31

The invasive spotted lanternfly (SLF) is a threat to multiple agricultural industries. In our new publication at www.mdpi.com/3429276, we present a #model that predicts the seasonal development ( #phenology) of the #SLF in areas that are climatically suitable for #establishment. #ipm #invasivepest

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Matthew R. Helmus @mrhelmus.bsky.social · Jul 16

So I guess electric vehicles are good for the planet! See this comprehensive life-cycle analyses of gas vs. electric. theicct.org/publication/... study from @a-niche-guy.bsky.social

#electricvehicles #environment #transportation #climatechange #greenenergy

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Matthew R. Helmus @mrhelmus.bsky.social · Jul 15

Measuring invasive spread requires distinguishing jump events from diffusion. Check out this #Rstats package that does it! For #spottedlanternfly, diffusive spread is constant, but jump spread is accelerating 🌐 neobiota.pensoft.net/article/1473... @neobiota.pensoft.net
#invasivespecies #ecology

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Matthew R. Helmus @mrhelmus.bsky.social · Jul 9

Managing invasive threats across complex landscapes with limited budgets is tough. Check out this is a cool new statistical method to balance ecological, spatial, and economic trade-offs. 🌐 @methodsinecoevol.bsky.social

#InvasiveSpecies #Ecology
besjournals.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/...

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Matthew R. Helmus @mrhelmus.bsky.social · Jul 7

For those who have taken sabbaticals: Did you set up an automatic email reply? I officially started sabbatical July 1, and have already received multiple emails I'd like an automatic response for. Any recommendations on wording?

#sabbatical #academic

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Jeannine Cavender-Bares @cavenderg9.bsky.social · Jul 1

www.forbes.com/sites/johndr...

"For every dollar spent [on science], the economy eventually produces an additional $1.71 in output. That return exceeds nearly every other form of public or private investment."

Trump’s NIH And NSF Cuts Estimated To Cost The U.S. Economy $10 Billion Annually

Economists find public R&D drives U.S. productivity growth — and pays for itself

www.forbes.com

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Matthew R. Helmus @mrhelmus.bsky.social · Jun 15

Do this first!

Alex Stockdale @alexstockdale.bsky.social · Jun 14

Introducing sumvar for R. A package to rapidly summarise and visualise variables with one-line commands, bringing the brilliant tab and sum functions from stata, to R. Install it from cran using install.packages(“sumvar”). #rstats

alstockdale.github.io/sumvar/

Summarise Continuous and Categorical Variables, Check for Duplicates and Missing Data

The sumvar package quickly explores continuous and categorical variables. sumvar aims to bring the ease and simplicity of the "sum" and "tab" functions from stata, to R.

alstockdale.github.io

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Alex Stockdale @alexstockdale.bsky.social · Jun 14

Introducing sumvar for R. A package to rapidly summarise and visualise variables with one-line commands, bringing the brilliant tab and sum functions from stata, to R. Install it from cran using install.packages(“sumvar”). #rstats

alstockdale.github.io/sumvar/

Summarise Continuous and Categorical Variables, Check for Duplicates and Missing Data

The sumvar package quickly explores continuous and categorical variables. sumvar aims to bring the ease and simplicity of the "sum" and "tab" functions from stata, to R.

alstockdale.github.io

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Matthew R. Helmus @mrhelmus.bsky.social · Jun 13

It's a great feeling when your PhD student submits their first paper!

a woman in a red and white striped shirt is throwing papers into the air

ALT: a woman in a red and white striped shirt is throwing papers into the air

media.tenor.com

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Matthew R. Helmus @mrhelmus.bsky.social · Jun 13

Girls born only a few days apart, but on either side of the starting-primary-school cut off date, have drastically different math scores. Not so for boys.

www.nature.com/articles/d41... #education #teaching #stem #math

When do girls fall behind in maths? Gigantic study pinpoints the moment

Analysis of almost three million children captures when ‘mathematical gender gap’ first emerges and could help focus efforts to stop girls from falling behind.

www.nature.com

Matthew R. Helmus @mrhelmus.bsky.social · Jun 12

We all know that prairie dogs are keystone species, and they're super cute when they yell and all run away, but did you know that birds also hear their calls and fly away when predators are near. Check out this new paper #ecology 🌐

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Matthew R. Helmus @mrhelmus.bsky.social · Jun 11

Can I get a Teleconnection?

Antonio Vecoli (@tonyveco on X) @tonyveco.bsky.social · Jun 11

🔴 ⚠️ 🔥 😷 After a journey of more than 7000km over the Atlantic Ocean, a new huge smoke plume has reached Europe from #Canada where more than 200 wildfires are burning across multiple provinces, from British Columbia to Ontario. ⬇️ The CO map over Europe with Sentinel-5P data on June 9th.

Antonio Vecoli (@tonyveco on X) @tonyveco.bsky.social · Jun 11

🔴 ⚠️ 🔥 😷 After a journey of more than 7000km over the Atlantic Ocean, a new huge smoke plume has reached Europe from #Canada where more than 200 wildfires are burning across multiple provinces, from British Columbia to Ontario. ⬇️ The CO map over Europe with Sentinel-5P data on June 9th.

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Matthew R. Helmus @mrhelmus.bsky.social · Jun 10

It's me, hi, I'm the problem, it's me...

Brian J. Enquist @bjenquist.bsky.social · Jun 10

You’re probably why it takes so long for your paper to get reviewed and your excuses are bad dynamicecology.wordpress.com/2025/06/10/y... 🧪

You’re probably why it takes so long for your paper to get reviewed and your excuses are bad

A weird thing happened in scientific publishing during COVID. And it hasn’t gone away. Publications went up 30-50%. And responses to requests to review went down 30-50%. I know the actual statistic…

dynamicecology.wordpress.com

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Matthew R. Helmus @mrhelmus.bsky.social · Jun 10

One Health needs a decisive reboot esajournals.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/...

#onehealth #ecology 🌐

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Brian J. Enquist @bjenquist.bsky.social · Jun 10

You’re probably why it takes so long for your paper to get reviewed and your excuses are bad dynamicecology.wordpress.com/2025/06/10/y... 🧪

You’re probably why it takes so long for your paper to get reviewed and your excuses are bad

A weird thing happened in scientific publishing during COVID. And it hasn’t gone away. Publications went up 30-50%. And responses to requests to review went down 30-50%. I know the actual statistic…

dynamicecology.wordpress.com

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Prof. Vigdis Vandvik @vvandvik.bsky.social · Jun 7

And here’s a link to the project page - in #ECOBUDGETS we’ll work with the municipality of Bergen to develop approaches for #climate and #nature budgeting as a tool to halt and reverse nature loss #cbd #kmgbf www.uib.no/en/cet/17331...

ECOBUDGETS

ECOBUDGETS helps municipalities and regional authorities make more sustainable decisions, by integrating budgets for emissions reductions and land use change into financial and other forms of administ...

www.uib.no

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Matthew R. Helmus @mrhelmus.bsky.social · Jun 7

Here's that awesome study everyone is talking about on how hummingbird beaks have evolved to better use hummingbird feeders 🕊️🐦🌐
#ecology

Global Change Biology @globalchangebio.bsky.social · Jun 6

Supplemental Feeding as a Driver of Population Expansion and Morphological Change in Anna's Hummingbirds

🔗 buff.ly/R6mw9w5

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Matthew R. Helmus @mrhelmus.bsky.social · Jun 7

Yes, a few #spottedlanternfly have been spotted in Oregon, and if you want to help with the search for this highly invasive grape pest, check out this risk mapping apps we built iecolab.org/slfDashboard...

#ecology

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Global Change Biology @globalchangebio.bsky.social · Jun 6

Supplemental Feeding as a Driver of Population Expansion and Morphological Change in Anna's Hummingbirds

🔗 buff.ly/R6mw9w5

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Matthew R. Helmus @mrhelmus.bsky.social · Jun 4

Is your student--or are you--looking for a PhD position? Check out this website that lists tons from across the globe.

www.findaphd.com/phds/

PhD Search

FindAPhD. Search Funded PhD Projects, Programmes & Scholarships. Search for PhD funding, scholarships & studentships in the UK, Europe and around the world.

www.findaphd.com

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Stephen Heard @stephenbheard.bsky.social · Jun 3

For scientific writers: Three things your Methods section shouldn't be - but three things Methods sections often end up being. You can avoid these mistakes! scientistseessquirre...

What your Methods section isn’t

If you’re a scientist like me, you read a lot of papers – and a lot of submitted manuscripts, drafts, and other larval stages of papers.* This is extremely helpful when it’s time to write your own …

scientistseessquirrel.wordpress.com

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Matthew R. Helmus @mrhelmus.bsky.social · May 31

All environmental problems are social problems.

A stepwise process for actionable environmental science research

esajournals.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/...

#ecology

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Matthew R. Helmus @mrhelmus.bsky.social · May 29

Dam!

Matthew R. Helmus @mrhelmus.bsky.social · May 29

That's a mouthful!

Andy Revkin 🌎 ✍🏼 🪕 ☮️ revkin.substack.com @revkin.bsky.social · May 29

Jet lagged in Greece at 3:30 am, catching this: Under assault from Trump and MAGA, weather and climate scientists are livestreaming for 100 hours nonstop
www.youtube.com/live/CcWR6Cd...
#sciencematters

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Tatyana Deryugina @tderyugina.bsky.social · May 28

I've started a website with simple graphs tracking how the US economy is doing in terms of unemployment, economic sentiment, and inflation. It will be updated monthly as new data come in. Feedback is welcome! #EconSky

usbarometer.com

US Economy Barometer

usbarometer.com

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