Lightnews — Scholar-powered news

Loren Albert @albert-loren.bsky.social · 1d

I'm excited to share this work led by Lynn Riley investigating albedo impacts from afforestation, reforestation, and revegetation projects. We hope the findings will guide future projects in the fight against climate change. www.nature.com/articles/s41...

Accounting for albedo in carbon market protocols - Nature Communications

The paper analyzes the impact of omitting biophysical effects from carbon credits on climate mitigation. It shows that some Voluntary Carbon Market projects may result in net warming due to albedo while others enhance cooling.

www.nature.com

3 10

Reposted by Loren Albert

Katharine Hayhoe @katharinehayhoe.com · 2d

This week, we lost one of the world’s greatest advocates for people and nature. Even in her final days, Dr. Jane Goodall was urging us not to give up, and now her legacy lives on through the countless voices she inspired.

Read on Mailchimp: shorturl.at/lDxXk
Read on LinkedIn: shorturl.at/VOiPa

Jane Goodall's final lesson

Honoring Jane Goodall's life, Pope Leo's first climate address, and finding hope in action

www.talkingclimate.ca

5 110 540

Reposted by Loren Albert

Bob Kopp @bobkopp.net · Jul 30

I am fairly skeptical of many ways people use LLMs, but drafting a refutation of misleading statements that have regurgitated in variants many times over the last couple decades and therefore are well-represented, alongside refutations, in training data is not an obviously terrible application.

Michael E. Mann @michaelemann.bsky.social · Jul 30

That new usual suspects (Curry, Spencer, Christy, McKitrick, Koonin) Trump EPA climate denier report? (www.energy.gov/sites/defaul...)?

I asked chatGPT to evaluate it. It had no trouble producing a succinct and convincing refutation:

refute this: https://www.energy.gov/sites/default/files/2025-07/DOE_Critical_Review_of_Impacts_of_GHG_Emissions_on_the_US_Climate_July_2025.pdf

5 19

Reposted by Loren Albert

Katharine Hayhoe @katharinehayhoe.com · Jul 30

This past week brought a landmark legal opinion for climate and set another series of staggering heat records: a powerful reminder of why we all have a role in accelerating climate solutions.

Read the full edition of the newsletter here:

The world's top court makes a climate decision

Big global win for climate, heatwave disaster in Kashmir, and supporting innovation for lasting change

www.talkingclimate.ca

2 58 170

Reposted by Loren Albert

Paul Voosen @voosen.me · Jul 30

So what makes a climate assessment? In short: not this new Energy Dept report, which rehashes contrarian greatest hits with areas of known uncertainty -- that climate scientists talk about all the time.

It's all a little grim. Who needs 721 authors when you have 5?

Contrarian climate assessment from U.S. government draws swift pushback

Researchers say DOE report cherry picks data to downplay threat of greenhouse gases

www.science.org

15 73 210

Reposted by Loren Albert

Jacquelyn Gill @jacquelyngill.bsky.social · Jul 19

The EPA has eliminated its research division, which for decades has provided the science behind regulations on clean air, clean water, and toxic chemicals.

The US can afford to monitor, research, and regulate the impacts of industries on human and environmental health. We are just choosing not to.

EPA eliminates research and development office, begins layoffs

The Environmental Protection Agency said Friday it is eliminating its research and development arm and reducing agency staff by thousands of employees.

apnews.com

140 1.1K 2.1K

Loren Albert @albert-loren.bsky.social · Apr 2

Advocating for science
www.agu.org/events/webin...

| AGU

<p>Join AGU for an impactful session on how scientists can advocate for science at the national level. Learn <strong>why your voice matters</strong>, how to <strong>communicate science effectively</st...

www.agu.org

2

Loren Albert @albert-loren.bsky.social · Mar 28

And a petition: oppose-the-layoff-of-the-nist-atomic-spectroscopy-group.org#Petition

Oppose the Layoff of the NIST Atomic Spectroscopy Group

oppose-the-layoff-of-the-nist-atomic-spectroscopy-group.org

Loren Albert @albert-loren.bsky.social · Mar 28

Standards and measurements sound boring, but they are absolutely essential to science. Trump cuts threaten a measurement lab critical for advanced chips and medical devices

www.npr.org/2025/03/26/n...

Trump cuts threaten a measurement lab critical for advanced chips and medical devices

The Atomic Spectroscopy Group provides standardized measurements used across wide swaths of science and industry. The Trump administration plans to cut it.

www.npr.org

1 1

Reposted by Loren Albert

Jeremy Koster @jeremykoster.bsky.social · Feb 20

The FAQ on the COA form is a little vague on the criteria to use, but it is generally accepted that, if there was no communication among a subset of co-authors on a particular paper, then it doesn't rise to the level of a collaboration to list. (Streamlined COA forms help program officers.) (19)

1 1 23

Reposted by Loren Albert

Jeremy Koster @jeremykoster.bsky.social · Feb 20

Also, NSF takes conflicts of interest seriously. That said, when you're filling out your COA form, listing every single co-author might not be necessary. When papers have many co-authors (e.g., genetics papers), not everyone rises to the level of a collaborator. (18)

www.nsf.gov/funding/seni...

Frequently Asked Questions: Collaborators and Other Affiliations (COA) Information Template

Do you have questions about the Collaborators and Other Affiliations (COA) Information Template? You can get them answered here.

www.nsf.gov

2 2 25

Reposted by Loren Albert

Jeremy Koster @jeremykoster.bsky.social · Feb 20

Oh, one more thing. This website is probably the best resource for NSF's response to the executive orders: www.nsf.gov/executive-or...

Please check there first before emailing the program officers (who have been coached to email you this link as a first response). (17)

NSF Implementation of Recent Executive Orders

Information for the NSF community regarding executive orders.

www.nsf.gov

2 6 46

Reposted by Loren Albert

Jeremy Koster @jeremykoster.bsky.social · Feb 19

Finally, have confidence that the program officers and staff members working in NSF’s directorates are among the most committed and thoughtful people that you could ever hope to meet, doing their absolute best to uphold the agency’s mission as long as the time allows. (16)

5 7 99

Reposted by Loren Albert

Jeremy Koster @jeremykoster.bsky.social · Feb 19

Perhaps now more than ever, cultivate curiosity in your students and reassure them that there are paths toward becoming a scientist in the future. Education and training remain a huge part of the NSF mission. (15)

1 10 88

Reposted by Loren Albert

Jeremy Koster @jeremykoster.bsky.social · Feb 19

Great ideas can come from anywhere, and congressional legislation (e.g., CHIPS and Science Act) has directed the NSF toward the goal of broadening participation in science. Researchers can organize and approach the legal counsel at their universities for clarifications on their activities. (14)

2 11 58

Reposted by Loren Albert

Jeremy Koster @jeremykoster.bsky.social · Feb 19

If you are invited to submit a draft of an abstract, recognize that abstracts are written for public audiences (i.e., taxpayers), not your academic peers. Make it clear why this study is worth doing. Avoid jargon. Think big picture. Minimize potential for misinterpretations. (9)

2 7 100

Reposted by Loren Albert

Jeremy Koster @jeremykoster.bsky.social · Feb 19

Upon learning that yesterday would be my last day as a program officer at the National Science Foundation, I shared this parting message with my colleagues. The next few months will be frenetic and stressful for them. Here are some things that you can do to help them with the mission ahead. (1)

68 830 2.4K

Loren Albert @albert-loren.bsky.social · Feb 16

Share the impacts on your research:

www.nature.com/articles/d41...

Are the Trump team’s actions affecting your research? How to contact Nature

Use this form to share information with Nature’s news team, or to make suggestions for future coverage.

www.nature.com

1 2

Reposted by Loren Albert

Monika Wieland Shields @orcawatcher.bsky.social · Feb 15

An important read:

www.rollingstone.com/politics/pol...

See you in the streets 💪🏻

1 1 11

Reposted by Loren Albert

The Needling @theneedling.com · Feb 14

Tesla Owner Running Out of Room For Bumper Stickers Explaining Tesla Ownership: bit.ly/3X1tdOs

Back of Tesla covered in bumper stickers like "Bought before we knew Elon was crazy" and "bought before the hand gesture."

25 350 1.2K

Reposted by Loren Albert

Seth Campbell @alpinesciences.bsky.social · Feb 10

Some people asked if I could list real impacts from some of the recent federal decisions. Here are SOME real impacts our team has faced already in 3 weeks:

1. Im quite certain 1 project (likely 2) I have that support low income high school students across the country, will be canceled. 🧪

1 8 25

Loren Albert @albert-loren.bsky.social · Feb 10

Just found Alt NIH on Bluesky. Hoping to find a good Alt NSF, Alt NASA, Alt USDA.... heck, how about an Alt universe I can join for at least 4 years...

1 3

Reposted by Loren Albert

Alt NIH Bluesky 🧪 @altnih4science.bsky.social · Feb 10

FAI is closely tied up with Koch-world. A majority of its employees and board members have Koch ties.

FAI’s goal is as said here, to privatize government including NIH and NSF.

Don Moynihan @donmoyn.bsky.social · Feb 10

Call me old fashioned, but I think decisions on what are the best prospects for science should be made by scientists, rather than by machines, or by non-scientists working for ideological think tanks whose job is to redirect money to private companies.

1 2 23

Loren Albert @albert-loren.bsky.social · Jan 23

Proximal remote sensing helps bridge the gap! Congratulations to Zoe Pierrat and other co-authors on this New Phytologist article: doi.org/10.1111/nph....

Proximal remote sensing: an essential tool for bridging the gap between high‐resolution ecosystem monitoring and global ecology

A new proliferation of optical instruments that can be attached to towers over or within ecosystems, or ‘proximal’ remote sensing, enables a comprehensive characterization of terrestrial ecosystem st...

doi.org

1

Loren Albert @albert-loren.bsky.social · Jan 10

Hello Blue Sky! Good to be here. How well can leaf reflectance spectra predict hydraulic traits in Amazon trees? Find out in our new RSE article led by Dr. Maquelle Garcia! authors.elsevier.com/c/1kGKn7qzT3...

authors.elsevier.com

2 3