Lightnews — Scholar-powered news

Dr. Ronan Connolly @ronanconnolly.bsky.social · Mar 3

🧪Interesting!
Fuentes & Pawlik (2025) ask were humans building boats in SE Asia 44,000 years ago.

They suggest that intentional boat-building (as opposed to bamboo rafts/dugout canoes) for seafaring and fishing then was quite plausible.

Paper: doi.org/10.1016/j.ja...
Summary: tinyurl.com/2s3maahh

Dr. Ronan Connolly @ronanconnolly.bsky.social · Feb 3

🧪In 1956, an ornithologist was tagging some Laysan albatrosses. Many years later, biologists discovered one of them was still alive and kicking. They called her "Wisdom". In November 2024, she returned to lay a new egg. She is at least 74 years old.

www.cnn.com/2024/12/05/u...

Wisdom the albatross is 74 years old. She’s found a new partner and just laid another egg | CNN

The world’s oldest known wild bird has sparked “special joy” among scientists after she laid an egg – her first in four years – at the age of 74.

www.cnn.com

1 2

Dr. Ronan Connolly @ronanconnolly.bsky.social · Feb 3

It's one of the last weeks of Venus as "the evening star" (first "star" after sunset) before it shifts to being "the morning star" (last "star" before sunrise) for the next few months.

So, I was happy to grab this shot of Venus beside a crescent moon, while out for a jog this weekend. 🧪🔭

Dr. Ronan Connolly @ronanconnolly.bsky.social · Dec 19

Exactly.

Dr. Ronan Connolly @ronanconnolly.bsky.social · Dec 19

The editors DON'T get any financial reward whether papers are published or not. They are supposed to be independent. Hence, these scammers are apparently targeting editors and bribing them with an incentive.

2

Dr. Ronan Connolly @ronanconnolly.bsky.social · Dec 19

Then this decision is usually sent on to the journal staff who handle the publication itself. And charge publication fees. But, the peer review process is usually handled by the editor (usually unpaid).

1 1

Dr. Ronan Connolly @ronanconnolly.bsky.social · Dec 19

The publishers would definitely not approve of editors taking bribes. The editors are independent of the publishers. They decide which manuscripts get sent for peer review, which reviewers are invited & the final decision to reject, or approve for publication after major/minor revisions.

1

Dr. Ronan Connolly @ronanconnolly.bsky.social · Dec 19

FYI, Prof. Tol is the editor-in-chief of the journal. He is NOT "the publisher" (that's Elsevier - one of "the big 5"). I haven't spoken to him - just reading his Substack. But, it seems he decided to reply to the unsolicited invitation & see how far it went.

www.sciencedirect.com/journal/ener...

Energy Economics | Journal | ScienceDirect.com by ElsevierScienceDirect

Read the latest articles of Energy Economics at ScienceDirect.com, Elsevier’s leading platform of peer-reviewed scholarly literature

www.sciencedirect.com

2 1

Dr. Ronan Connolly @ronanconnolly.bsky.social · Dec 19

The "$5k price" was him pretending it was the minimum bribe he would accept. The scammer said, yes, we'll be willing to Paypal you that much for each paper... and we could send you up to 500 per year. (i.e., it was a good price)

Again, this is a bribe to the editor. Separate from any journal fees.

1

Dr. Ronan Connolly @ronanconnolly.bsky.social · Dec 19

I gather he was following along with the scammers to see how far they were prepared to go. When the scammers submitted the first paper, this confirmed it was a serious "enterprise". He never took any money or approved any papers, but played along until then. Apparently, he's reporting real-time.

Dr. Ronan Connolly @ronanconnolly.bsky.social · Dec 19

By the way, that $5k would have been direct PayPal to the editor & separate from any publication fees for the journal. It was a bribe to get him to approve for publication "after minor revisions" whatever manuscript was sent to him ($5k/paper).

Plus:
"Do manuscripts need real data?"
"Nah."

1

Dr. Ronan Connolly @ronanconnolly.bsky.social · Dec 19

From what I can tell, the scammers are being paid by "co-authors" trying to boost their resume with multiple "peer-reviewed papers" in high profile journals.

Being a co-author on a paper in an IF=13.6 journal is great for your CV (translation: dishonest people would pay scammers good money for it)

2 1

Dr. Ronan Connolly @ronanconnolly.bsky.social · Dec 19

🧪A disturbing trend.

The editor-in-chief of a high profile journal (IF=13.6) was recently offered the opportunity to make up to $250k/year to approve fake papers in his journal ($5k per paper). He declined & reported it. 👍

But, would other editors be tempted? 😬
richardtol.substack.com/p/crime-pays

Crime pays

A paper mill offered me $250,000 per year

richardtol.substack.com

2 3 7

Dr. Ronan Connolly @ronanconnolly.bsky.social · Dec 14

I get what you're saying. I think though, if we compare to the proposed D-K effect, it's probably more the inverse of D-K. That is, experts overestimating the ability (or rather in this case, knowledge base) of non-experts.

I think it dovetails quite well with "imposter syndrome" though... 🤔

1 2

Dr. Ronan Connolly @ronanconnolly.bsky.social · Dec 14

Indeed...

1 2

Dr. Ronan Connolly @ronanconnolly.bsky.social · Dec 14

🧪

xkcd.com/2501/

3 11 42

Dr. Ronan Connolly @ronanconnolly.bsky.social · Dec 14

Currently, I'm at stage 3... 🙈😉

Dr. Ronan Connolly @ronanconnolly.bsky.social · Dec 14

🧪The 5 stages of grief for trying to finish projects in December:
1. Denial. "I'll finish it all this year!"
2. Anger. "Why's it taking so long?"
3. Bargaining. "Ok, let's just get THIS part finished."
4. Depression. "🙄..."
5. Acceptance. "The rest can wait until January!"
🥳🎉

2 1 20

Dr. Ronan Connolly @ronanconnolly.bsky.social · Dec 10

Brenda Ueland (1891-1985) writing in 1941 about the importance of learning to listen to others.

Reposted by Dr. Ronan Connolly

Dr. Michelle I. Turner @chaco-arch.bsky.social · Nov 23

Neanderthal natural history collections acquisition! www.mdpi.com/2571-550X/7/...

Were Neanderthals the First Collectors? First Evidence Recovered in Level 4 of the Prado Vargas Cave, Cornejo, Burgos and Spain

Collecting is a form of leisure, and even a passion, consisting of collecting, preserving and displaying objects. When we look for its origin in the literature, we are taken back to “the appearance of...

www.mdpi.com

4 19 97

Dr. Ronan Connolly @ronanconnolly.bsky.social · Nov 23

🧪 I just read the "science fiction in a science journal" 🤔 article of: Mostofi & Peyravi (2024) "Practice of neurosurgery on Saturn" doi.org/10.1016/j.ij... 👽🚀🛸

Unusual.

Still it reminded me of my recent Substack about Galileo Galilei's discovery of Saturn's rings.

substack.com/home/post/p-...

Home | Substack

Discover and discuss great writing with the world’s smartest readers on Substack.

substack.com

Dr. Ronan Connolly @ronanconnolly.bsky.social · Nov 21

Got it! Yes, I see it in the feed now - it must have just been slow to update. "The site is under stress at the moment". Gotcha! Looking at the recent dramatic uptick in BSky membership, I can understand why! Thanks, Manu!

1

Reposted by Dr. Ronan Connolly

Kristina Killgrove @killgrove.bsky.social · Nov 20

New feature from me in honor of the 50th anniversary of Lucy’s discovery. 🏺🧪

www.livescience.com/archaeology/...

Lucy's last day: What the iconic fossil reveals about our ancient ancestor's last hours

Fifty years after a fossil skeleton of Australopithecus afarensis was unearthed in Ethiopia, we know so much more about how this iconic species lived and died.

www.livescience.com

5 50 180

Reposted by Dr. Ronan Connolly

Kristina Killgrove @killgrove.bsky.social · Nov 20

And a supplementary piece I wrote on some of the cool discoveries in the middle Pliocene. There were many more hominins in Lucy's time than just A. afarensis! 🏺🧪

www.livescience.com/archaeology/...

Ancient human ancestor Lucy was not alone — she lived alongside at least 4 other proto-human species, emerging research suggests

Lucy lived in a wide range of habitats from northern Ethiopia to northern Kenya. Researchers now believe she wasn't the only australopithecine species there.

www.livescience.com

2 23 120

Dr. Ronan Connolly @ronanconnolly.bsky.social · Nov 20

bsky.app/profile/rona...

Dr. Ronan Connolly @ronanconnolly.bsky.social · Nov 20

🧪In this video, I summarise our new article where we analysed 45 years of satellite measurements of the Sun's energy reaching the Earth ("TSI").

Has it risen, fallen or stayed the same? And what are the implications?

Video: www.youtube.com/watch?v=Evbi...

Link to paper: doi.org/10.3847/1538...

Thumbnail image for a Youtube video with the title "Watching the Sun: 45 years of satellite observations". The background includes an image of a satellite orbiting the Earth and a figure showing three graphs suggesting different possible histories of the changes in solar activity since 1978.

1