Lightnews — Scholar-powered news

Reposted by Allison Jacobel

Kevin Anchukaitis @thirstygecko.bsky.social · Jul 18

Fascinating ... and a hopeful sign

7 31

Allison Jacobel @ajacobel.bsky.social · Jul 11

Keep calling, keep writing op eds - it's working!!!, but it's not over until the final vote!!

Science Magazine @science.org · Jul 10

The Senate appropriations committee has voiced its intent to ignore the request by President Donald Trump to slash the budgets of the National Science Foundation and NASA science programs. scim.ag/4nW7XWi

Senate spending panel would rescue NSF and NASA science funding

Its support for a flat budget is a sign of congressional resistance to drastic cuts Trump has proposed

scim.ag

2

Allison Jacobel @ajacobel.bsky.social · Jun 26

The Middlebury College Department of Earth and Climate Sciences is searching for a computational climate scientist to join the department on the tenure-track. More details here: apply.interfolio.com/169028 application deadline is 10/1

Apply - Interfolio {{$ctrl.$state.data.pageTitle}} - Apply - Interfolio

apply.interfolio.com

12 14

Allison Jacobel @ajacobel.bsky.social · Jun 23

Proud to be (even just visiting) at an institution that is standing up for science and scientists! Thank you @colorado.edu and @instaar.bsky.social

3

Allison Jacobel @ajacobel.bsky.social · Jun 20

Also special thanks to my BFF & fellow @macalestercollege.bsky.social geo grad Karen Jackson for her help in photographing these gorgeous landscapes!

Allison Jacobel @ajacobel.bsky.social · Jun 20

Thanks to the Navajo Nation and NPS for photography permits; to the Thunderbird Lodge for the tour; financial support from the Marion and Jasper Whiting Foundation and Jeanne Epp Barksdale Faculty Fellowship & thanks to the Center for Digital Learning and Inquiry at Middlebury for tech support.

1 1

Allison Jacobel @ajacobel.bsky.social · Jun 20

We used LiDAR & Scaniverse on the iPad Pro, a 360 camera, and a Canon D90 to capture 3D scans of outcrops, panoramas, images, and video for these trips.

Woman in a blue hat scanning a rock outcrop with an iPad

1

Allison Jacobel @ajacobel.bsky.social · Jun 20

Excited to share one of my sabbatical side projects: virtual, interactive, field trips to Canyon de Chelly National Monument - part of the Navajo Nation. I made these for my Sed Processes & Environments course. Please let me know if you find them useful! www.ajacobel.com/virtual-fiel...

Image of a butte in Canyon de Chelly at sunset

1 5

Reposted by Allison Jacobel

Kate Marvel @drkatemarvel.bsky.social · Jun 13

I believe two things deeply:

1. Sending a rover to Mars reflects the best of humanity: thousands of brilliant minds working together to peacefully explore the cosmos and share what they've learned for the benefit of all humankind

2. Mars is trash

Stuart Atkinson @stuartatkinson.bsky.social · Jun 12

The Curiosity rover is sending back some jaw-droppingly gorgeous views from Mars right now... Well done everyone on the camera teams|! Just look at this glorious detail and lighting...! Images: NASA/JPL-Caltech/MSSS/fredk/S Atkinson

7 11 85

Allison Jacobel @ajacobel.bsky.social · Jun 13

Infaunal forams autocorrects to infernal forms

Dr. Brendan Anderson @fossilsndcoffee.bsky.social · Jun 13

Thought this would be a great thread, so let's start one😁- what are your science autocorrect woes?
I'll start with neontologist =/= neonatolologist

🧪🦑⚒️

Skye McDavid @skyemcdavid.com · Jun 13

Dear iPad Autocorrect,
Please stop autocorrecting postyzygapophyses to postyzyapophysis. Postzygapophyses is the plural of postyzygapophysis.
Thanks,
Skye

1 5

Reposted by Allison Jacobel

Katie Mack @astrokatie.com · Jun 9

I think it's important to continuously reiterate that federal science funding grants in the US (and elsewhere) are made because the government, with the input of panels of independent experts, have concluded that the work being done is IN THE INTEREST OF THE NATION.

Matthew Facciani @matthewfacciani.bsky.social · Jun 9

When the Trump administration froze this Nobel Prize–winning neuroscientist's research funding, he received an email from China offering to relocate his lab to any city and university of his choice, with guaranteed funding for 20 years.
www.nytimes.com/2025/06/03/u...

U.S. Scientists Warn That Trump’s Cuts Will Set Off a Brain Drain

www.nytimes.com

26 440 1.3K

Reposted by Allison Jacobel

Peter Gleick @petergleick.bsky.social · Jun 6

An important message on the need for Congress to step up and save American science by two former presidential science advisors.
thebulletin.org/2025/06/time...

Time for Congress to save American science … and the nation

We believe the best hope for saving science and, perhaps, saving our form of democracy, is convincing at least a couple dozen Republican members of Congress that it’s up to them—that the stakes requir...

thebulletin.org

1 23 61

Reposted by Allison Jacobel

Kendra "Gloom is My Beat" Pierre-Louis @kendrawrites.com · Jun 5

Remember folks, women are too emotional to be president.

37 620 3.1K

Allison Jacobel @ajacobel.bsky.social · Jun 5

To support NSF funding I've called both of my VT senators (where I work), the senators from MN (where I grew up), the senators from CO (where I live), and Senator Moran - Chair of the Commerce, Science & Transportation Appropriations Committee (KS). It's easy, join me & support the NSF!

3

Reposted by Allison Jacobel

Katie Mack @astrokatie.com · Jun 3

If you burn down a forest, you don't miss out on lumber for just that season. You have to replant all the trees, nurture them, and wait for them to grow.

The science and research budget cuts happening now are wanton, senseless arson. Recovery, if it ever happens, will take generations.

90 2.5K 8K

Allison Jacobel @ajacobel.bsky.social · May 31

The budget in that section for the CAREER is 229.55M and it is zeroed out, per the program solicitation they award 250M in CAREER grants. CAREER is not mentioned anywhere else in the budget. Happy to be wrong, but looks unlikely more than ~25 grants could remain.

1

Reposted by Allison Jacobel

mjfGatesToAnEldritchRealm @mjfgates.bsky.social · May 31

It's just one tax cut! What can it cost, a quarter of a million scientists?

1 12 19

Allison Jacobel @ajacobel.bsky.social · May 31

The 229M that appears next to the CAREER in that section is ~all of the 250M allotted for the program overall per the solicitation.

Allison Jacobel @ajacobel.bsky.social · May 31

Where do you see CAREER appear elsewhere? I did find the second GRPF reference and am 'relieved' it's only 55%.

1 1

Allison Jacobel @ajacobel.bsky.social · May 31

Goodbye REUs, goodbye GRFPs, goodbye CAREERs (which ironically I just finished writing today). This is the end of the road for all early-career scientists. If you aren't enraged you aren't paying attention.

6 82 160

Reposted by Allison Jacobel

Peter Gleick @petergleick.bsky.social · May 31

There are 2 previous historical cases of countries destroying their science and universities, crippling them for decades: Lysenkoism in the USSR and Nazi Germany. The Trump administration will be the 3rd.
It's not just budgets but research, institutions, expertise, and training the next generation.

Graphs showing 25 years of budgets for the National Institute of Health, NASA, and the NSF. In all cases, the proposed budget for next year is far, far below any year of the previous quarter century.

460 7.9K 15K

Allison Jacobel @ajacobel.bsky.social · May 31

Aaaand our worst nightmare just moved one step closer to reality. This is apocalyptic for the GEO community and our work:

nsf-gov-resources.nsf.gov/files/00-NSF...

3 5

Allison Jacobel @ajacobel.bsky.social · May 19

If you aren't using your platform/position to stand up for science you should be! Don't let these cuts happen without a fight.

Stand Up for Science! @standupforscience.bsky.social · May 18

Our goal is to have 1000 SUFS Teach Ins across the US, by 9/30.

*GASP* 😮

We know, it's a big goal.

If you've received tax dollars for your science, you have a responsibility to inform *your* community what is at stake: public health, the economy, innovation, and America's global leadership.

Host a teach in. Share science with your community....protest style! Calling back to the teach ins of 1965, we are taking to parks, pubs, & churches to tell our neighborhoods about how the budget cuts will impact them.

13 73

Reposted by Allison Jacobel

Peter Gleick @petergleick.bsky.social · May 18

This is just a partial glimpse of the destruction of American science by Trump and the GOP.

Table showing the massive cuts in federal science funding for EPA- 54.5%, NASA -24%. NOAA - 24%, NSF -56%, USGS- 38% etc.

39 820 1.5K

Reposted by Allison Jacobel

Carl T. Bergstrom @carlbergstrom.com · Feb 8

5. Other schools may have even higher overhead rates. Harvard's is around 69%.

This new order slashes that percentage to a maximum of 15%. This means cutting one of the most important sources of university funding nationwide by 75% or more.

Universities cannot function with this scale of cut.

23 380 2K