Lightnews — Scholar-powered news

Andrea Rummel, Ph.D. @arummel.bsky.social · 7d

Come join us at Rice!

Scott P. Egan @scottpegan.bsky.social · 26d

The Dept. of BioSciences at #RiceUniversity, in Houston, Texas, invites applications for a tenure-track assistant professor position in Evolutionary Biology, with a preferred focus on organismal responses to environmental change. Please RT!

Apply: apply.interfolio.com/173889

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

apply.interfolio.com

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Andrea Rummel, Ph.D. @arummel.bsky.social · Aug 10

The hairiest! Good spot

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Reposted by Andrea Rummel, Ph.D.

Alexandria Shockney @ashockney24.bsky.social · Aug 9

Wing pelage is suggested to have a functional role in bats — and it’s not just to make them cuter. Check out the publication below to learn more!

#academia #academicSky #PhDSky #bats #science

Andrea Rummel, Ph.D. @arummel.bsky.social · Aug 7

Super proud to share the first first-author paper from @ashockney24.bsky.social and our first official Rummel lab publication! Check it out here: nyaspubs.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/...

NYAS Publications

Bats are the only mammals capable of powered flight, and while they retain the furry coat of other small mammals, their wings, the primary flight surface, are generally thought to be hairless. We ass....

nyaspubs.onlinelibrary.wiley.com

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Andrea Rummel, Ph.D. @arummel.bsky.social · Aug 7

We think that wing pelage may be important from a thermoregulatory standpoint during roosting, and likely has some biomechanical effect during flight.

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Andrea Rummel, Ph.D. @arummel.bsky.social · Aug 7

After looking at the front and back of a lot of bat wings on field trips, in museum collections, and using existing images of bats in flight, we found that body mass and various aspects of bat ecology are related to the presence of fur on the wing. Here's @ashockney24.bsky.social at TAMU's BRTC.

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Andrea Rummel, Ph.D. @arummel.bsky.social · Aug 7

Bats have relatively naked wings - i.e., they are furless - but that's not entirely true. We decided to look across the diversity of bat species to determine which bats had fur on their wings, where on the wings bats tend to have fur, and speculate as to why there is variation in wing pelage.

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Andrea Rummel, Ph.D. @arummel.bsky.social · Aug 7

Super proud to share the first first-author paper from @ashockney24.bsky.social and our first official Rummel lab publication! Check it out here: nyaspubs.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/...

NYAS Publications

Bats are the only mammals capable of powered flight, and while they retain the furry coat of other small mammals, their wings, the primary flight surface, are generally thought to be hairless. We ass....

nyaspubs.onlinelibrary.wiley.com

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Andrea Rummel, Ph.D. @arummel.bsky.social · Jul 30

Hi! I work on bat flight biomechanics and physiology and other aspects of bat biology - would love to come talk about bats!

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Andrea Rummel, Ph.D. @arummel.bsky.social · Jul 29

Loved this write-up of our fieldwork in Tanzania this summer, led by grad student Annie Finneran and undergrad Caroline Pollan. I felt very lucky to join them to catch some bats there!

news.rice.edu/news/2025/ba...

A bat is being released back into the night.

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Reposted by Andrea Rummel, Ph.D.

Sarah McAnulty, Ph.D. @sarahmackattack.bsky.social · Jul 29

Possum in my trash can I REPEAT! Possum in my trash can.

A young possum in Sarah’s trash can sitting on a bag of trash

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Andrea Rummel, Ph.D. @arummel.bsky.social · Jul 26

Another active night at Buffalo Bayou watching the bat emergence. The bats come out before sunset, and so do the predators, with hawks catching them mid-air and herons plucking them from their roosts

A swainson's hawk with a bat in its talons flies through the air.

A night heron sits on a branch with two bats in its beak.

A swarm of bats flies through Houston after leaving their roost at Waugh Dr and Buffalo Bayou

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Andrea Rummel, Ph.D. @arummel.bsky.social · Jun 9

Read here: www.sanjac.edu/about/news/2...

Project Gotham: Student Research Gets Batty

At night, a white van slows ahead of you. You brake just as your headlights illumine a yellow sign on the rear window: “WARNING.” Below, flanked by bat icons, are the words: “Slow Vehicle: Scientific Research in Progress.” You’ve just spotted San Jacinto College’s Project Gotham team in the middle of some batty research.

www.sanjac.edu

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Andrea Rummel, Ph.D. @arummel.bsky.social · Jun 9

Really nice write-up of our collaboration with San Jacinto College! We are working together to listen to 🦇🦇🦇around Houston. Shout out to @ashockney24.bsky.social for getting this project off the ground!

Alexandria Shockney @ashockney24.bsky.social · Jun 4

Project Gotham is making news! I was first introduced to the excitement (and challenges!) of independent research in community college and now I’m a part of a program with @arummel.bsky.social and Tyler Olivier that provides that same opportunity to other students. A fulfilling, full-circle moment.

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Reposted by Andrea Rummel, Ph.D.

Alexandria Shockney @ashockney24.bsky.social · Mar 17

We had a truly spectacular emergence at Waugh Bridge last night! 🦇

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Andrea Rummel, Ph.D. @arummel.bsky.social · Mar 17

Battle of the wings at Buffalo Bayou (the bat got away 😮‍💨🦇)

Swainson’s hawk attacks a Mexican free tailed bat in front of a building and trees in central Houston

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Reposted by Andrea Rummel, Ph.D.

Kory Evans Ph.D @sternarchella.bsky.social · Mar 12

We got the cover of Nature Eco Evo for our anglerfish study!! Shoutout to our graduate student HoWan Chan for the slick image. Read to study here www.nature.com/articles/s41...

Cover image of Nature Ecology and Evolution showing a micro-CT scan of an anglerfish looking generally menacing

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Andrea Rummel, Ph.D. @arummel.bsky.social · Mar 10

Nice bat emergence in Houston the other night, with a red-shouldered hawk on the hunt.

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Reposted by Andrea Rummel, Ph.D.

Ruha Benjamin @ruha9.bsky.social · Mar 5

“We believe this rush to comply is a sign that universities are willing to become an institutional wing of the new segregationists.”

www.insidehighered.com/opinion/view...

Colleges must stand up to the new segregationists (opinion)

In rushing to comply with Trump’s executive actions, universities support a segregationist agenda, Subini Annamma and David Stovall write.

www.insidehighered.com

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Andrea Rummel, Ph.D. @arummel.bsky.social · Mar 1

Grad student Kate checking out some bats in a local colony. Glamorous fieldwork!

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Reposted by Andrea Rummel, Ph.D.

Science Friday @scifri.bsky.social · Feb 21

Last week, a video of a rare black seadevil anglerfish spotted near the ocean surface made headlines because anglerfish typically live in very deep waters.

Dr. @sternarchella.bsky.social joins us to discuss the video and recent research on anglerfish evolution.

Why The Internet Was Captivated By A Hideous Fish

A video of a gloriously creepy anglerfish inspired tears and poetry online. But why was this deep-sea dweller near the surface at all?

buff.ly

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Reposted by Andrea Rummel, Ph.D.

Darby Saxbe @darbysaxbe.bsky.social · Feb 4

🚨BREAKING. From a program officer at the National Science Foundation, a list of keywords that can cause a grant to be pulled. I will be sharing screenshots of these keywords along with a decision tree. Please share widely. This is a crisis for academic freedom & science.

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Andrea Rummel, Ph.D. @arummel.bsky.social · Jan 30

The Rummel Lab is almost ready for move-in! What a view 🥹

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Reposted by Andrea Rummel, Ph.D.

Brandon Friedman @brandonfriedman.bsky.social · Jan 30

Army Blackhawk helicopters are crashing into passenger planes at DCA while the Secretary of Defense is on Fox News ranting about DEI

Aaron Rupar @atrupar.com · Jan 30

Pete Hegseth: "Diversity is not our strength"

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Reposted by Andrea Rummel, Ph.D.

Jo Wolfe, PhD @jopabinia.bsky.social · Jan 29

This isn't mine at all, but the Magic School Bus TV cartoon, which inspired untold millennials including myself, originated as an NSF grant 🧪

www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/...

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Reposted by Andrea Rummel, Ph.D.

Sarah McAnulty, Ph.D. @sarahmackattack.bsky.social · Jan 28

Helloooo? Horseshoe crab is that you?

A business card sized piece of paper looks like an iPhone. It looks like the screen where someone is calling. A horseshoe crab is on the line for you.

This is stuck in a street pole

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