Lightnews — Scholar-powered news

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Mark O. Martin @markowenmartin.bsky.social · 1d

New episode of #MattersMicrobial! The superlative Dr. Jeff Gralnick chats with the #QualityQuorum about bacteria that breathe metal! Please spread the #GoodMicrobialWord! @univpugetsound @asmicrobiology @microbe.tv

youtu.be/rh-TK2Bvxj8?...

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Allan Konopka @hamatsa50.bsky.social · 5d

New on Think Like a Microbe ... Iron!
🧫🧪 #philsci

open.substack.com/pub/thinkmic...

Ecological Consequences of Iron Scarcity

Gold is for the mistress, silver for the maid, copper for the craftsman, cunning at his trade, ‘Good’ said the Baron, sitting in his hall, ‘but iron — cold iron — is master of them all’.

open.substack.com

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Maria Popova @mariapopova.bsky.social · 7d

How Jane Goodall turned her childhood dream into reality – a sweet illustrated story of purpose and deep determination www.themarginalian.org/2015/01/19/m...

How Jane Goodall Turned Her Childhood Dream into Reality: A Sweet Illustrated Story of Purpose and Deep Determination

A heartening testament to the power of undivided intention.

www.themarginalian.org

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Dr. Birgitta Hoffmann @mancent.bsky.social · 10d

Tonight I learned that one of my heroes has died. I loved her and colleagues' "adventures" as a child and grew up to admire her scientific work for so many reasons. RIP Jane Goodall.

Jane Goodall, wildlife advocate and primate expert, dies at 91 - www.reuters.com/business/env...

Wildlife advocate, primate expert Jane Goodall dies at 91

Scientist and global activist Jane Goodall, who turned her childhood love of primates into a lifelong quest for protecting the environment, died on Wednesday at the age of 91, the institute she founded said.

www.reuters.com

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Maria Popova @mariapopova.bsky.social · 14d

Silent Spring was published on this day in 1962, catalyzing the environmental movement. The deeply human story behind it: www.themarginalian.org/2017/01/27/r...

The Story Behind “Silent Spring”: How Rachel Carson’s Countercultural Courage Catalyzed the Environmental Movement

“It is, in the deepest sense, a privilege as well as a duty to have the opportunity to speak out — to many thousands of people — on something so important.”

www.themarginalian.org

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Will Ratcliff @wcratcliff.bsky.social · 23d

I find this reassuring. LLMs don't replace the need to learn how to write whatsoever.

There really are no shortcuts to thinking super hard for many hours. That is the only wait to do good science. All shortcuts are an illusion.

--> This is good for the humans! Roll your sleeves up and think.

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A. Murat Eren (Meren) @merenbey.bsky.social · 23d

Have you ever looked at some differentially occurring gene clusters in a microbial #pangenome and thought to yourself "I wonder if they contribute to any metabolic modules"?

With the most recent changes, the answer is a few clicks away in #anvio 😇

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Andreas Bäumler @abaumler.bsky.social · 28d

Hydrogen sulfide production distinguishes Salmonella from close relatives, but its biological significance remains obscure. This study uncovers the secret: Salmonella uses hydrogen sulfide production as a weapon to outcompete E. coli and gain a foothold in the gut.
www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/...

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Maria Popova @mariapopova.bsky.social · Sep 11

“Do you need a prod? Do you need a little darkness to get you going?”

Mary Oliver would have been 90 today. Her immortal wisdom on the measure of a life well lived: www.themarginalian.org/2015/02/09/m...

Mary Oliver on the Measure of a Life Well Lived and How to Magnify Your Aliveness

“Do you need a prod? Do you need a little darkness to get you going?”

www.themarginalian.org

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Holly Bik @hollybik.bsky.social · Sep 9

Phew!!! Thank goodness we have a 2025 GRFP announcement!

Casey terHorst @ecoevolab.bsky.social · Sep 8

The GRFP lives!! (due end of October)
www.nsf.gov/funding/oppo...

NSF Graduate Research Fellowship Program (GRFP)

www.nsf.gov

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eLife @elife.bsky.social · Sep 7

Reconstructing long-range axons from dense brain images is tough.

This study introduces a novel method that separates axon identification from global statistical rules, showing big improvements over existing tools for mapping neuronal projections.
buff.ly/OBKr9cM

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Cameron Thrash @jcamthrash.bsky.social · Aug 25

Redox conduction facilitates direct interspecies electron transport in anaerobic methanotrophic consortia www.science.org/doi/full/10.... #jcampubs

Redox conduction facilitates direct interspecies electron transport in anaerobic methanotrophic consortia

Methane-consuming microbial partners use redox conductors to pass electrons.

www.science.org

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Nicholas Bellono @nbellono.bsky.social · Sep 4

Octopuses sense environmental microbiomes to drive predatory and parental behaviors. Artwork by Lily Soucy. #evolution #sensation #microbiome @cellpress.bsky.social

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Thiago Carvalho @cyrilpedia.bsky.social · Sep 1

'Early on in her life, Esther defied societal conventions by pursuing biochemistry, against recommendations from her teachers who believed that a career in science was too difficult for women'
academic.oup.com/genetics/adv...

Pioneer of bacterial genetics: the legacy of Esther Miriam Lederberg

Abstract. Esther Miriam Lederberg's brilliant scientific lifework, from the discovery of phage lambda, bacterial conjugation, and replica plating, provided

academic.oup.com

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Alex Loy @loyteam.bsky.social · Aug 27

📢 New paper in @nature.com

Microbes rock 🎸🤘 with sulfide and iron minerals

I am very excited to share our recent study, which describes a previously unknown microbial energy metabolism ⚡⚡⚡🦠🧫⚡⚡⚡

🆕 Microbial iron oxide respiration coupled to sulfide oxidation - MISO

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

Microbial iron oxide respiration coupled to sulfide oxidation - Nature

Genomic and biochemical analyses of prokaryotic sulfur metabolism identify diverse microorganisms with the capacity to oxidize sulfide using iron(iii).

www.nature.com

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Jana Huisman @jhuisman.bsky.social · Aug 25

Have you ever wondered what increasing environmental stress will do to microbial communities?

In our new preprint, @martinadalbello.bsky.social, Jeff Gore and I studied the impact of salinity on microbial community composition and function. 🧵 (1/5)
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...

Microbial communities demonstrate robustness in stressful environments due to predictable composition shifts

Environmental stress reduces species growth rates, but its impact on the function of microbial communities is less clear. Here, we experimentally demonstrate that increasing salinity stress shifts com...

www.biorxiv.org

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Çağrı Çevrim @cagricevrim.bsky.social · Aug 11

The final paper from my PhD project is out! Check it out for lots of live recordings of regenerating limbs.

We show how we optimized long-term live imaging of regenerating crustacean limbs, up to 10 days, with high temporal resolution.

#microscopymonday #regeneration #liveimaging

Michalis Averof @michalis-averof.bsky.social · Aug 8

Latest paper elifesciences.org/articles/107... closes an important cycle in our efforts to study regeneration: week-long recordings allow us to observe the behaviour of cells during the entire course of regeneration in a crustacean leg – bright objects in movie are fluorescent nuclei of cells. 1/6

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Swathi @swath1.bsky.social · Aug 21

docs.google.com/document/d/1...

Weird microbial partnership shows how complex life may have evolved.docx

Weird microbial partnership shows how complex life may have evolved Connecting tubes between bacteria and a kind of microbe called archaea may reflect a symbiotic relationship that led to complex cell...

docs.google.com

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Maria Popova @mariapopova.bsky.social · Aug 18

“To stare into the spiral top of a whelk or cone shell is to see the swirl of the Milky Way.”

If you love the intersection of art and science, cultural history and conservation, this lovely read is for you: www.themarginalian.org/2022/07/21/s...

Seashells and the Spiral of Wonder at the Intersection of Art and Science

“Seashells were money before coin, jewelry before gems, art before canvas… To stare into the spiral top of a whelk or cone shell is to see the swirl of the Milky Way.”

www.themarginalian.org

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Adrià Sogues @adriasogues.bsky.social · Aug 17

Many spores from the Firmicutes group are decorated with hair-like structures. Since the 60s, they remained a mystery. @remaut-lab.bsky.social named these fibres ENdospore Appendages (ENAs). Using Cryo-ID, we report the identity, structure and function of F-ENA.
www.nature.com/articles/s41...

Cryo-EM identifies F-ENA of Bacillus thuringiensis as a widespread family of endospore appendages across Firmicutes - Nature Communications

B. thuringiensis spores contain uncharacterized protein filaments that extend from the surface of the exosporium. Here, the authors show that these filaments feature conserved β-barrel neck domains an...

www.nature.com

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Dr Dr Oona Snoeyenbos-West @oonawest.bsky.social · Jul 26

Very pretty! Loved using similar and such nice looking gassing manifolds when I was a postdoc in the Lovley Lab, back in the day… But, here’s a secret: you can build one with parts from Amazon for way less 💵 that works just as well 👌🏻😉

Kaçar Lab at UW-Madison @kacarlab.bsky.social · Jun 13

Accomplishment of the week! Let's go!!! @hollyrucker.bsky.social

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Ardem Patapoutian @ardemp.bskyverified.social · Jul 4

I was feeling a bit down this Fourth of July but was reminded: “Remember, it’s the birthday of our country and its ideals, not the government or any party.” Happy Independence Day! Cheers to working together for better times ahead 🥂

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Quanta Magazine @quantamagazine.bsky.social · Jun 6

“We should all be allowed entry into the mysteries of the living world, but people step away from it. They say they found science boring or dull, or it wasn’t their cup of tea, or they’re not good at it. But science is everything.”

How Paradoxical Questions and Simple Wonder Lead to Great Science | Quanta Magazine

Manu Prakash works on the world’s most urgent problems and seemingly frivolous questions at the same time. They add up to a philosophy he calls “recreational biology.”

www.quantamagazine.org

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Schuller Jan @schullerjm.bsky.social · Jun 4

Proud to present the lab's latest work. The full structure of the sodium translocating methyltransferase (Mtr) bound to a small oxygen-responsive small protein MtrI. Work by Tristan and together with @schmitzstreitslab.bsky.social .

www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2025.06.02.657420v1

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Nature Communications @natcomms.nature.com · Jun 2

Deep-sea #hydrothermal plumes support an array of microbial metabolisms, but the fate of organic C is unknown. Here, the authors used metabolic rate assays and metagenomic data to show that heterotrophic bacteria contribute significantly to C cycling in the deep #sea.
www.nature.com/articles/s41...

Elevated heterotrophic activity in Guaymas Basin hydrothermal plumes influences deep-sea carbon cycling - Nature Communications

Deep-sea hydrothermal plumes support an array of microbial metabolisms, but the fate of organic carbon in these systems is unknown. Here, the authors used metabolic rate assays and metagenomic data to...

www.nature.com

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