Lightnews — Scholar-powered news

Ben Uveges @benuveges.bsky.social · 16h

Check out this great write up of our field campaign out on Seneca lake in the @nytimes.com ! With @erinhassett.bsky.social.

www.nytimes.com/2025/10/08/n...

Why Is This Lake ‘Burping’?

www.nytimes.com

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Reposted by Ben Uveges

Erin Hassett @erinhassett.bsky.social · 23h

Our research on Seneca Lake has been featured in the New York Times! Check it out! @benuveges.bsky.social @nytimes.com

Why Is This Lake ‘Burping’?

www.nytimes.com

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Reposted by Ben Uveges

Nemiah Ladd @nemiahladd.bsky.social · 6d

Cool PhD opportunity at Uni Bern to work with Petra Zahajska on her Ambizione project Pixel2Paleo, creating high resolution pigment and lipid biomarker marker records from lake sediments 🧪. Apply by Dec. 2:

www.eag.org/wp-content/u...

www.eag.org

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Ben Uveges @benuveges.bsky.social · 9d

New co-author paper out today in @pnas.org led by the fantastic Dr. Lubna Shawar!

Lubna breathes new life into the sponge sterol hypothesis with her meticulous organic geochemistry, and the ID of two new sponge-derived C31 Steranes in ~600 Myr rocks. Check it out! 🧪⚒️

www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/...

Chemical characterization of C31 sterols from sponges and Neoproterozoic fossil sterane counterparts | PNAS

Putative metazoan body fossils from the Precambrian are curiously lacking morphological characteristics that link them unambiguously to extant anim...

www.pnas.org

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Ben Uveges @benuveges.bsky.social · 11d

Had a great week out on Seneca lake taking samples to test some ideas about the cause of the mysterious Seneca Drums (aka Guns)!

Aside from the “cool factor” of getting to investigate a local legend I grew up hearing about, there are Environmental and water quality implications of the work too.

Erin Hassett @erinhassett.bsky.social · 12d

We were interviewed this week by WENY— check out the article about our research! www.weny.com/story/531154...

Researchers take samples from Seneca Lake in effort to figure out what causes the 'Seneca Drums'

After hundreds, if not thousands of years of uncertainty, scientists from Cornell University and SUNY ESF have teamed up to try to figure out what causes the so called 'Seneca Drums'.

www.weny.com

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Ben Uveges @benuveges.bsky.social · 28d

A new semester means a new round of Sparks Lab TidyTuesday on a Wednesday! This month, one of our students picked the #TidyTuesday Pokémon dataset to visualize. This was my contribution, which explored median stat distributions by primary type. Really fun dataset and a great group exercise!

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Ben Uveges @benuveges.bsky.social · Sep 1

It’s that time of year again! #MinCup25

Mineral Cup #MinCup25 @mineralcup.bsky.social · Sep 1

#MinCup25 Round 1 Match 1: Hazardous (but useful!) #Chrysotile faces off against stunning gem #Pectolite. Do you pick the forbidden cotton candy, or the anti-pulverization beauty?

VOTE: www.mineralcup.org/2025/vote/r1...

Check RESULTS: www.mineralcup.org/2025/results...

Vote in Round 1 Match 1 — Mineral Cup

Click here to vote in Chrysotile vs Pectolite

www.mineralcup.org

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Reposted by Ben Uveges

Sarah H. Ledford @sledford.bsky.social · Aug 25

New paper with our community partners! We used four years of community science E. coli measurements to look at patterns in Atlanta streams. iopscience.iop.org/article/10.1...

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iopscience.iop.org

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Ben Uveges @benuveges.bsky.social · Jun 23

Congrats on getting this out!

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Ben Uveges @benuveges.bsky.social · Jun 23

Take a break from doom scrolling to have a look at this really cool study lead by @fatimagulhusain.bsky.social out of MIT!

Fatimagül Husain @fatimagulhusain.bsky.social · Jun 23

I am excited to share our latest work, out now in
@natcomms.nature.com.

We used eukaryotic biomarkers and 18S rRNA genes to examine the ephemeral meltwater ponds of the McMurdo Ice Shelf, revealing pond-to-pond diversity and a biomarker signal for life below the shelf!

More at: rdcu.be/erMkt

Biosignatures of diverse eukaryotic life from a Snowball Earth analogue environment in Antarctica

Nature Communications - The supraglacial meltwater ponds of the McMurdo Ice Shelf, analogues for proposed Cryogenian period eukaryotic refugia, are shown to host diverse and varied eukaryotic...

rdcu.be

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Ben Uveges @benuveges.bsky.social · Jun 14

What this “presidential” parade feels like.

a man in a military uniform is holding a stuffed animal and says these are my awards mother from army

ALT: a man in a military uniform is holding a stuffed animal and says these are my awards mother from army

media.tenor.com

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Ben Uveges @benuveges.bsky.social · Jun 14

This was a neat project to work on, and I enjoyed getting to branch out into some methane isotope work. Thanks @profbobhowarth.bsky.social for suggesting we take a deeper look.

Prof. Bob Howarth @profbobhowarth.bsky.social · Jun 13

Increase in methane emissions from fossil fuels has been underestimated. Our new PNAS paper just published today:
www.pnas.org/doi/epub/10....

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Ben Uveges @benuveges.bsky.social · May 29

Another really nice writeup on our recent PNAS paper by Dan Bernardi at Syracuse University A&S Communications!

artsandsciences.syracuse.edu/earth-scienc...

Rock Record Illuminates Oxygen History

A team of researchers from Syracuse University and MIT uncovered evidence that oxygenation in the ocean—crucial for life as we know it—may have occurred earlier than previously thought, offering new i...

artsandsciences.syracuse.edu

Reposted by Ben Uveges

Dr. Tripti Bhattacharya @triptychphrases.bsky.social · May 28

Please tune in today to find out what federally funded research does for you!

The Weather & Climate Livestream @wclivestream.bsky.social · May 27

Our 💯 hours to #SaveAmericasForecasts starts tomorrow!

Tune in to hear over 200+ US meteorologists and climate scientists share the importance of federally funded weather and climate research!

wclivestream.com

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Ben Uveges @benuveges.bsky.social · May 19

Wonderful write-up by the amazing @fatimagulhusain.bsky.social on our recent PNAS paper:

eaps.mit.edu/news-impact/...

3 Questions: Demystifying Earth’s Ancient Nitrogen Cycle

Today, oxygen is essential for much of life on Earth and is involved in many biological processes, including cellular respiration. But early Earth lacked an oxygen-rich surface until the Great […]

eaps.mit.edu

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Ben Uveges @benuveges.bsky.social · May 15

Fantastic article on why cuts at NSF are harmful to everyone. For scientists, a thorough collection of evidence of NSF's impact. For everyone else, a small slice of the incredible number of everyday things NSF-funded research has improved. By Prof. Paul Bierman.🧪

theconversation.com/unprecedente...

Unprecedented cuts to the National Science Foundation endanger research that improves economic growth, national security and your life

The Trump administration has terminated hundreds of federal grants that support engineering, biology, geology, computer science, STEM education and much more.

theconversation.com

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