Lightnews — Scholar-powered news

Sachin Rawat @sachinxr.bsky.social · 29d

🧊 Icebergs can sometimes suddenly flip over. But why does that happen?

✍🏽 New for @physicsmagazine.bsky.social: A new experiment recreating iceberg flips in the lab suggests that changes in shape due to melting determine if and how an iceberg tips over. 🧪 physics.aps.org/articles/v18...

Recreating Iceberg Flips in a Lab

Experiments with small, floating slabs of ice have revealed melting-induced shape changes that may explain why icebergs sometimes flip over.

physics.aps.org

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Sachin Rawat @sachinxr.bsky.social · Aug 26

Thanks to @noctivagans.bsky.social and @jackhooker.bsky.social for sharing their time and insights.

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Sachin Rawat @sachinxr.bsky.social · Aug 26

Wind turbines kill a massive number of bats. These animals seem to be unusually attracted to turbines, and researchers have long puzzled over why. 🦇🧪

For @science.org, I wrote about a new study that suggests they might be responding to a visual cue. www.science.org/content/arti...

Bats may mistake wind turbines for open sky, causing deadly collisions

Study may help explain why giant blades kill millions of the animals every year

https://www.science.org/content/article/bats-may-mistake-wind-turbines-open-sky-causing-deadly-collisions🧪

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Sachin Rawat @sachinxr.bsky.social · Aug 18

Are you a materials scientist or engineer working on optical material sensors? Have some ideas on how they could power the sports wearable of the future?

If so, I'm looking to speak with you for an article in Photonics Focus. #JournoRequest

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Reposted by Sachin Rawat

Opal @opalescentopal.bsky.social · Jul 27

With Tom Lehrer's passing, I suppose this is a moment to share the story of the prank he played on the National Security Agency, and how it went undiscovered for nearly 60 years.

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Reposted by Sachin Rawat

Physics Magazine @physicsmagazine.bsky.social · Aug 1

Researchers studied recordings of cicadas to discover that the insects’ singing is synchronized with the Sun's position in the sky. The rapid rise in volume suggests that each cicada starts singing in response to both the light level and its neighbors' behavior.

Cicadas Decide to Sing with a Little Help from Their Friends

The daily start of a cicada’s mating call is triggered by the amount of light in the sky and also by the behavior of nearby insects.

physics.aps.org

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Sachin Rawat @sachinxr.bsky.social · Aug 6

Thanks to De-Ming Liu (one of the study authors) and @robjohnnoble.bsky.social for the comments.

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Sachin Rawat @sachinxr.bsky.social · Aug 6

🧪 Often, in a counterintuitive phenomenon called Parrondo’s paradox, two losing strategies can be combined into a winning one.

✍🏽 For @physicsmagazine.bsky.social, I wrote about a new study on harnessing this paradox for cancer treatment. physics.aps.org/articles/v18... #MathOnco

Game-Theory Paradox Inspires Cancer Therapy

Simulations suggest that the combination of two cancer-therapy strategies, which individually deliver poor outcomes, might produce optimal results.

physics.aps.org

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Reposted by Sachin Rawat

Reese Richardson @reeserichardson.bsky.social · Aug 4

Today, our article "The entities enabling scientific fraud at scale are large, resilient, and growing rapidly" is finally published in PNAS. I hope that it proves to be a wake-up-call for the whole scientific community.

reeserichardson.blog/2025/08/04/a...

A do-or-die moment for the scientific enterprise

Reflecting on our paper “The entities enabling scientific fraud at scale are large, resilient, and growing rapidly”

reeserichardson.blog

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Reposted by Sachin Rawat

C&EN (Chemical & Engineering News) @cenmag.bsky.social · Aug 5

Companies that broker and facilitate scientific fraud are large, resilient, and growing rapidly, according to a new study. cen.acs.org/policy/publi... #chemsky 🧪

Brokers of scientific fraud growing rapidly, study finds

Publishers are not keeping up with paper mills and other purveyors of shoddy academic papers

cen.acs.org

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Reposted by Sachin Rawat

Tamar Haspel @tamarhaspel.bsky.social · Jul 15

We have reams of evidence - including this new paper - that obesity is much more about food than exercise.

Calories in matters way more than calories out.
www.pnas.org/doi/pdf/10.1...

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Sachin Rawat @sachinxr.bsky.social · Jul 8

Thanks to @simonepigolotti.bsky.social and @davidbrueckner.bsky.social for their time and insights.

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Sachin Rawat @sachinxr.bsky.social · Jul 8

Many densely packed systems have a hidden structure. They seem random, but become uniform as you zoom out. Conversely, variation increases with scale in hyperdisorder. 🌌 🧪

✍🏽 New for Physics Magazine: A new study reports the first example of hyperdisorder in biology. physics.aps.org/articles/v18...

The Secret Disorder of Squids

A structural phenomenon traditionally confined to inanimate systems has now been observed in biology.

physics.aps.org

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Reposted by Sachin Rawat

Simone Pigolotti @simonepigolotti.bsky.social · Jul 8

Physics Magazine writes about our research on hyperdisordered patterns. Thanks @sachinxr.bsky.social for the article and @davidbrueckner.bsky.social for the quotes!

The Secret Disorder of Squids

A structural phenomenon traditionally confined to inanimate systems has now been observed in biology.

physics.aps.org

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Reposted by Sachin Rawat

Carl T. Bergstrom @carlbergstrom.com · Jul 7

The only problem is that the citations go to papers that don't actually exist.

Sources:

P. Siler et al., PNAS (2015) – analysis of peer review outcomes and rounds

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Reposted by Sachin Rawat

Sabrina Imbler @sabs.bsky.social · May 23

I wrote about how irritated I am by the latest Colossal misrepresentation.
defector.com/colossal-bio...

Colossal Biosciences Can't Have It Both Ways | Defector

On April 7, the New Yorker and Time ran nearly identical stories that might be better described as press releases for the de-extinction company Colossal Biosciences. The two stories differed slightly:...

defector.com

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Sachin Rawat @sachinxr.bsky.social · May 21

I read your article and tried the first tip haha.

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Sachin Rawat @sachinxr.bsky.social · May 20

😂

Reposted by Sachin Rawat

Nathan Williams @bluebirdadventures.bsky.social · May 15

No AI, this is a real photo taken by Percy’s engineering cameras of astronomical twilight on #Mars! You can see Deimos in the sky too.

I worked pretty hard to plan, execute, and analyze this image, and it came out beautifully! A bit noisy, but it was very dark out after all.

#astro #planetary

Astronomical twilight on Mars, including the moon Deimos. Taken by the Engineering Cameras aboard the Perseverance Rover.

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Reposted by Sachin Rawat

Free Łink - Matthew R Francis @bowlerhatscience.org · May 6

Speaking of "AI" (since that's all we talk about anymore), my latest article on "AI" in medical imaging is up! When hospitals push this tech on doctors, it can lead to misdiagnoses or diagnoses on entirely wrong criteria: www.siam.org/publications...

When Artificial Intelligence Takes Shortcuts, Patient Needs Can Get Lost | SIAM

Artificial intelligence models may take shortcuts by drawing inferences based on incidental details rather than actual diagnostic factors.

www.siam.org

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Reposted by Sachin Rawat

Joseph D. Ortiz @earthsciinfo.bsky.social · May 6

If you stop collecting weather & climate data it does not have an impact on rising GHGs. They will still continue to grow if we continue to burn fossil fuels. And it certainly won't end droughts, floods, or extreme weather events. It will just make us less prepared for those disasters. 🧪🌊🔌💡☀️💨🔋

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Sachin Rawat @sachinxr.bsky.social · May 5

🧪 The world has a seemingly insatiable appetite for fats and lipids but this high demand comes at a massive ecological cost.

✍🏽 For @synbiobeta.bsky.social, I wrote about sustainable, synthetic biology-based fat alternatives www.synbiobeta.com/read/halting...

Halting Deforestation With Synthetic Biology-Produced Fats - SynBioBeta

www.synbiobeta.com

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Sachin Rawat @sachinxr.bsky.social · Apr 17

🫀 As we age, heart muscle cells thicken and lose elasticity. Cellular damage marks cardiovascular and neurodegenerative disorders, fibrosis, etc. 🧪

✍️🏽 New for @synbiobeta.bsky.social: Regenerative cell therapies could reverse the damage, rejuvenating organs. www.synbiobeta.com/read/change-...

Change of Heart—Literally: Engineered Cells Flip the Script on Organ Failure - SynBioBeta

www.synbiobeta.com

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Reposted by Sachin Rawat

GOTHAM lab @gotham-lab.bsky.social · Mar 28

📌 New paper alert!!!

1/5 How is the spread of epidemics shaped by both random walks and commuting? We answer this question in this paper appeard in Physical Review E by @pvalganon.bsky.social, A Brotons, @sorianopanos.bsky.social & @gomezgardenes.bsky.social 👇

Balancing mobility behaviors to avoid global epidemics from local outbreaks

Human interactions and mobility shape epidemic dynamics by facilitating disease outbreaks and their spatial spread across regions. Traditional models often isolate commuting and random mobility as sep...

journals.aps.org

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Reposted by Sachin Rawat

Katherine Seaton @mathskath.bsky.social · Mar 24

#MathArtMarch Day 25 Chaos. In 2018, Julia and I crocheted twin Lorenz Manifolds from the pattern by Hinke Osinga. Not only is this a stable manifold in the Lorenz system, mounting them resulted in chaos of the colloquial kind. 80 hours of crochet, and countless hours of wrangling.

A red curved surface made from crochet with wire to give the edges definition, suspended from the top.

Red and blue crocheted surfaces that have wires around their edges. They are lopsided and sagging.

Blue crocheted surface being manipulated by two people whose arms and hands are visible.

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