Lightnews — Scholar-powered news

Alice Risely

@alice-risely.bsky.social

820 followers 680 following 250 posts

Ecologist with broad interests studying gulls, pathogens, and microbiomes. Love and teach R. Dangerously close to becoming microbiologist. Gulls Eating Stuff citizen science project. https://alicerisely.weebly.com/

alicerisely.weebly.com

Posts Media Videos Starter Packs

Pinned

Alice Risely @alice-risely.bsky.social · Jun 11

🦠 SAVE THE DATE! 🦜

I'm excited to announce that the theme of the 2027 BOU conference is Avian Disease Ecology!

📍 Nottingham, UK
📅 6–8 April 2027

🔗 Full details: lnkd.in/gPvFFDJe

Please share widely!

#BOU2027 #Ornithology #WildlifeDisease #AvianDisease #EcoHealth

2 29 50

Reposted by Alice Risely

Science Magazine @science.org · 3d

“I will miss the creativity of teaching.”

On #WorldTeachersDay, check out this #ScienceWorkingLife essay from a retired professor emeritus on how she challenged students to think beyond facts—and how she learned to teach like a scientist. https://scim.ag/4nvwosR

People diving into a pool of books and figures, with text: How I learned to teach like a scientist

2 24 81

Reposted by Alice Risely

Zack Polanski @zackpolanski.bsky.social · 3d

I'm Jewish. I'm also Mancunian.

Every other national party leader was interviewed by Laura Kunesberg during their conference.

Maybe the BBC thought as someone who also supports Palestine - I had nothing to say?

Let's keep growing: join.greenparty.org.uk

160 1.2K 3.9K

Reposted by Alice Risely

FEMS Journals @femsjournals.bsky.social · 3d

Happy Teacher’s Day! 🎉To celebrate, #FEMSMicrobiolLett has put together a new Thematic Issue highlighting how discoveries in the microbiology lab can be taught to inspire learning, build science literacy, and shape tomorrow’s solutions.

✨Read collection: buff.ly/3hPInyI

1 9 10

Reposted by Alice Risely

Erin Green @erinrgreen.bsky.social · 4d

Job alert ‼️ UChicago Micro is hiring! Open to tenured/tenure track faculty at all levels in any area of microbiology. Come join our amazing and growing department. apply.interfolio.com/174404

4 120 120

Reposted by Alice Risely

Ron Filipkowski @ronfilipkowski.bsky.social · 3d

He could’ve fought, but he faked bone spurs. So someone else had to go in his place - most likely a working class kid whose daddy couldn’t afford to bribe a doctor. Now he’s talking shit about how it should’ve been fought.

2.1K 5.9K 19K

Reposted by Alice Risely

Kevin J. CREATURE @kevinjkircher.com · 4d

Research also shows that spreading smaller amounts of funding out over more researchers generally delivers better scientific outcomes per dollar spent than focusing bigger grants on fewer researchers.

journals.plos.org/plosone/arti...

Big Science vs. Little Science: How Scientific Impact Scales with Funding

Agencies that fund scientific research must choose: is it more effective to give large grants to a few elite researchers, or small grants to many researchers? Large grants would be more effective only...

journals.plos.org

2 31 120

Alice Risely @alice-risely.bsky.social · 3d

Just booked my hotel in Edinburgh for #BES2025. 🥳

Reposted by Alice Risely

Lauren Evans @laurenevans217.bsky.social · Jul 9

Thrilled to say the first chapter of my PhD is out today in @ecol-evol.bsky.social!

We used buccal swabbing & DNA metabarcoding to explore the diet of Fulmars & Manx shearwaters 🧬🐧

onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/...

Advancing Seabird Diet Studies Through Buccal Swabbing for DNA Metabarcoding

Determining the diet of wide-ranging, pelagic seabirds is challenging. In this study, we investigated buccal swabbing and DNA metabarcoding to describe the diet of Manx shearwaters (Puffinus puffinus....

onlinelibrary.wiley.com

1 15 50

Reposted by Alice Risely

John Innes Centre @johninnescentre.bsky.social · 5d

VACANCY - Independent research fellowships leading to tenured positions

We’re inviting applications from outstanding researchers who either hold, or wish to apply for, Independent Research Fellowships.

APPLICATION DEADLINE: 10 November 2025

Click here to apply: jic.link/Fellows

1 27 18

Alice Risely @alice-risely.bsky.social · 5d

V happy that the majority of my MSc students (in BioMed) now choose the 'I enjoy data science' option after my two data analysis lectures (the 'before' barplot was mostly 'OK'). New generation of statisticians coming attcha ;).

Possibly Mentimetered them to death on p-values though!

Reposted by Alice Risely

Kate Jeffery @katejj.bsky.social · 7d

The University of Glasgow groundspeople are going to be quite annoyed when they come in to work tomorrow...

88 580 2.3K

Reposted by Alice Risely

EMBL-EBI @ebi.embl.org · 8d

There are millions of openly available microbial genomes, but searching them can be slow.

Until now 🥁

Introducing LexicMap, a new alignment tool that lets scientists search these data in minutes, helping track antibiotic resistance, trace outbreaks, and more.

www.ebi.ac.uk/about/news/r...
🦠

How to rapidly search the world’s microbial DNA

By making the world’s microbial DNA easier to explore, LexicMap helps researchers track outbreaks, study antibiotic resistance, and understand microbial diversity.

www.ebi.ac.uk

1 16 41

Reposted by Alice Risely

Nature Reviews Biodiversity @natrevbiodiv.nature.com · 8d

New online! Biodiversity shapes humanity’s fight against infectious disease

Biodiversity shapes humanity’s fight against infectious disease

Nature Reviews Biodiversity, Published online: 30 September 2025; doi:10.1038/s44358-025-00100-6Biodiversity shapes humanity’s fight against infectious disease

bit.ly

2 4

Alice Risely @alice-risely.bsky.social · 8d

Does it have gulls tho

Razvan Borza @rborza.bsky.social · 9d

⚠️Don't forget! You have FREE alternatives!

🔖Reminder that @niaidnews.bsky.social offers 2000+ scientific and biomedical high-quality icons for free use! Check their full catalog: bioart.niaid.nih.gov

📢And if that’s not enough, you also have SciDraw and Bioicons! Comment if you want the websites.

Alice Risely @alice-risely.bsky.social · 8d

Trying to make a comprehensive and interactive tutorial on Data Analysis in R, using learnr and hosted on shinyapps.io, to cover all my teaching across BSc and MSc modules. Thought it would be easy but it's a real headache! #help #rstats

shinyapps.io

1 1 4

Alice Risely @alice-risely.bsky.social · 9d

Absolutely terrifying.

WuTangIsForTheChildren @wutangforchildren.bsky.social · 10d

ICE Nazis in Chicago tried to kidnap a food delivery worker but my man was too fast for those slow bastards

Reposted by Alice Risely

Tarik Abou-Chadi @tabouchadi.bsky.social · 14d

The German government made the same argument when moving to stricter asylum rules in the 90s. Since then, far-right violence in Germany has not only increased. In many regions the far right has become an institutionalized even dominant force. We now see a second generation of far-right thugs.

Paul Brand @paulbrand.bsky.social · 14d

This is first time I’ve heard the govt making the Labour argument for controlling immigration.

Mahmood argues that controlling our borders is good for race relations, because uncontrolled immigration is feeding far right rhetoric and tensions.

Expect to hear a lot more of that.

1 44 190

Reposted by Alice Risely

Tarik Abou-Chadi @tabouchadi.bsky.social · 12d

For the Guardian, @turnbulldugarte.com and I discuss our research that clearly shows one thing: Labour's anti-immigration strategy will only strengthen Reform and weaken its own electoral prospects. It won't win voters back but ultimately normalizes the far right

www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...

Our research makes it clear: by capitulating to the right, Labour is driving voters to Reform UK | Tarik Abou-Chadi and Stuart Turnbull-Dugarte

Mimicking Farage on immigration is senseless. Labour voters feel betrayed; anti-immigration voters see through the ruse, say academics Tarik Abou-Chadi and Stuart Turnbull-Dugarte

www.theguardian.com

28 320 730

Reposted by Alice Risely

Breeding Bird Surveys (BBS) @bbs-birds.bsky.social · 14d

3. The Woodland indicator has shown worrying recent short-term declines, but shows signs of stabilising. Favourable climatic conditions may explain this, favouring species like Blackcap. Nightingale too is shows a recent increase. But Willow Tit and migrants like Spotted Flycatcher are in decline.

Adpated image from the Defra official statistics for specialist woodland birds showing the long-term changes in percentage change - 1970-2023 on the left and short term changes (2018-2023) on the right. Species are ordered by the value of the long term change, with the largest declines at the top (in red/orange) to largest increases in green/blue). Species with no detectable change are in grey. Willow Tit and Wood Warbler are highlighted as species in trouble, Nightingale as species which have experienced big long term declines are showing some signs of improvement and Chiffchaff as a species with huge increases over both time periods

1 1 5

Reposted by Alice Risely

Mongabay @mongabay.com · Sep 7

According to a new study abundances of tropical birds were 25-38% lower than they would be without human-driven climate change and the rising temperatures it has caused.

This temperature impact on birds is greater than declines attributed to deforestation.

Tropical bird numbers plummet due to more days of extreme heat, study finds

Tropical bird populations are crashing as temperatures soar. That’s according to a new study that found abundances of tropical birds were 25-38% lower than they would be without human-driven climate…

news.mongabay.com

1 28 49

Reposted by Alice Risely

Nature Microbiology @natmicrobiol.nature.com · 15d

📢 A new collection 'Climate Change and Infectious Diseases' is open for submissions!

A joint project with @natcomms.nature.com @nathealth.nature.com & @commsmed.nature.com, with @julietai.bsky.social as the lead editor for Nature Microbiology

#MicroSky 🦠
More info: www.nature.com/collections/...

Climate Change and Infectious Diseases

Through this cross-journal Collection, the editors at Communications Medicine, Nature Communications, Nature Microbiology, Nature Health, and Scientific ...

www.nature.com

9 22

Reposted by Alice Risely

Matt Clark 🌳🌄🏖️ @mattcscience.bsky.social · 13d

Out in @science.org today. The Ngezi forest of Zanzibar is likely the most intact oldgrowth tropical dry forest in East Africa, if not the continent; it also houses tons of endemic species and gives resources to thousands of people. Bulldozers are waiting at its edge

www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...

Tourism puts Zanzibari reserve at a crossroads

The moist broadleaf forests located on the coasts of Tanzania and Kenya and on nearby archipelagos such as Zanzibar are highly fragmented hotspots of plant and animal diversity (1). On Pemba, the 988-...

www.science.org

1 10 18

Reposted by Alice Risely

UK Seabird Monitoring Programme @smp-seabirds.bsky.social · 12d

Herring Gull plumage varies vastly between hatching and becoming adults! Initially, they are leggy balls of black-speckled down, soon to embark on a shifting plumage journey!

Discover their plumage changes in this thread ⬇️ #seabirds #birds @btobirds.bsky.social @jncc.bsky.social @rspb.bsky.social

1 11 31

Reposted by Alice Risely

Cumbria Wildlife Trust @cumbriawildlife.bsky.social · 12d

Join Bekka, our South Walney Assistant Warden, as she explains why our #SouthWalney reserve is so rich in wildlife 🌊

For more info on visiting ⬇️
www.cumbriawildlifetrust.org.uk/nature-reserves/south-walney

#Cumbria #LakeDistrict

4 57

Reposted by Alice Risely

BOU @bou.org.uk · 12d

⏰ DEADLINE APPROACHING

Keynote nominations - who would you like to see deliver a keynote at the #BOUasm26 Avian futures conference?

Anyone can nominate and you can do so here: bou.org.uk/event/avi...

Nomination deadline: 30 Sept 2025

#ornithology 🪶

5 5