Lightnews — Scholar-powered news

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Royal Entomological Society @royentsoc.bsky.social · Jun 24

Do you know a young person with an interest in insects? 🦋

The Douglas Boyes Fund aims to provide people aged 14-18 with access to entomology equipment, fostering their passion for insects and inspiring them to engage and share their interest with other young individuals 🔽

Douglas Boyes Fund - Royal Entomological Society

The Douglas Boyes Fund has been established in honour of Douglas Boyes (1996-2021), an esteemed entomologist specialising in Lepidoptera. The Fund aims to provide young people aged 14-18 with access…

buff.ly

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Emily Hornett @bolinabug.bsky.social · May 12

Fun unexpected finding just submitted as a preprint

Greg Hurst @greghurst.bsky.social · May 12

New preprint ex @bolinabug.bsky.social (+ @daisukekageyama.bsky.social & @scottishwormboy.bsky.social) on the pronounced secondary expansion of Spiroplasma and Rickettsia genomes in lacewings doi.org/10.1101/2025... #symbiosky 1/2

Concerted genome expansion of heritable symbionts in an insect host

Maternally transmitted symbionts represent important components of arthropod biology, acting as both beneficial partners and as reproductive parasites. Their strict vertical transmission greatly reduc...

doi.org

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Matthew Collins @matthewcollins.bsky.social · Feb 9

Have/nearly have a PhD?
≤7 years post-doc experience?
Working outside UK?
Not a UK citizen?

BA & Royal Society offering 2-yr Fellowships for early career researchers to come to the UK!
💷 Includes:
Research expenses £12k
Relocation up to £8k
🗓️ Deadline: Mar 18, 2025 (17:00 GMT)
#ResearchFunding

International Fellowships 2025

The International Fellowships Programme enables researchers to work for two years at a UK institution with the aim of building a globally connected, mobile research and innovation workforce.

www.thebritishacademy.ac.uk

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Willem van Schaik @wvschaik.bsky.social · Feb 14

The UK is very much open for business, and so is the rest of Europe.

You will have to suffer a pay cut, but instead you get high-quality healthcare, no shootings and, if you choose wisely, no fascists in government.

Harmit Singh Malik @harmitmalik.bsky.social · Feb 14

If only some university/ research institute/ philanthropy in the world had the courage, they could hire some very amazing scientists who are going to blaze new trails in science (if they can get a chance).

And I’m sorry for not defending tenure in academia & government more vociferously in the past

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Alt National Park Service @altnps.bsky.social · Feb 14

We are calling for a nationwide and international boycott of all Elon Musk-related products and services. Sell your Tesla shares, avoid buying Tesla vehicles, cancel Starlink, and delete your X accounts.

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Greg Hurst @greghurst.bsky.social · Jan 15

New preprint from @haraipapilio.bsky.social with @bolinabug.bsky.social @daisukekageyama.bsky.social and others not on bluesky #symbiosky www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...

Evolution of Wolbachia male-killing mechanism within a host species

Male-killing bacterial symbionts, prevalent in arthropods, skew population sex ratios by selectively killing male progeny, profoundly impacting ecology and evolution of their hosts. Male-killing is a ...

www.biorxiv.org

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Eva Heinz @evaheinz7.bsky.social · Jan 9

Happy 2025 all! Hot off the press, news from the #mosquito #microbiomes and why a 'reproducibility crisis' in mosquito research might be because your #holobiont is not exactly the same as next-door's holobiont 😁 💻🧬🦠🦟
lnkd.in/dp7v-wqU

This link will take you to a page that’s not on LinkedIn

lnkd.in

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Orla @somebogwitch.bsky.social · Aug 4

Brilliant BBC animated report by ecologist David Goulson on the vital role of insects in our ecosystems and the real threats of declining populations

Why insects are so crucial to life on Earth - BBC Ideas

Watch the "Why insects are so crucial to life on Earth" video at BBC Ideas. Explore other related content via our curated "Nature and us" playlist.

www.bbc.co.uk

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D. Allan Drummond @dadrummond.art · Dec 28

A favorite commission this year, a dividing cell with an extra detail. Colleagues of a retiring researcher commissioned me to add the specific structure she worked on—the spindle pole body—to the sculpture. Here it is close up, in sterling silver embedded in the bronze nuclear membrane. 🔬#SciArt

A dividing budding yeast cell in steel, bronze, and silver, with apatite gemstones for the chromosomes. The sculpture rests in my hand, a physical cutaway view with many cellular structures visible.

Closeup of the sculpture, centered on the spindle pole body, a tiny structure looking like a stack of pancakes from the side, embedded in the long curved nuclear membrane, tethering the spindle (a splayed bundle of silver branches each terminating in a jewel chromosome). The spindle structure is polished silver, lodged in the polished bronze of the membranes and surrounded by bronze endoplasmic reticulum, mitochondria, and other structures.

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Emily Hornett @bolinabug.bsky.social · Dec 25

Hugs. He was a fiesty little poppet and will always be remembered with love

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Prem Sikka @premnsikka.bsky.social · Dec 23

Thames Water diverted millions of pounds pledged for environmental clean-ups to pay bonuses & dividends

187 criminal convictions since 1989, routinely dumps sewage in rivers/seas, neglects investment.

Protected by successive govts, customers fleeced.
www.theguardian.com/business/202...

Revealed: Thames Water diverted ‘cash for clean-ups’ to help pay bonuses

Exclusive: UK’s biggest water company assessed risks before cutting back on cost of environmental work, investigation shows

www.theguardian.com

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Stephen Montgomery @ebablab.bsky.social · Dec 22

Some unique photos of #Heliconius in here!

www.theguardian.com/artanddesign...

On a wing and a prayer: the hidden beauty of insect’s flight – in pictures

Artist Xavi Bou has created an eye-popping series celebrating fascinating creatures that are too often seen only as a nuisance

www.theguardian.com

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Arnaud Martin @evolvwing.bsky.social · Dec 17

New preprint by butterfly wizard
@lucalivraghi.bsky.social

www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...

We mapped optix (again?!) as the switch gene of a natural polymorphism, this time controlling silver patches of a mountain butterfly. Gorgeous RNAi validation, evidence of selective sweeps, introgression

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Anthony Ricciardi @ecoinvasions.bsky.social · Dec 15

Quote: "It is very hard to interpret big data in ecology in meaningful ways if you do not know anything about who the organisms are and what they do in the environment."
onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10....

A place for natural history in the 21st century

Natural history provides an important basis for observing interactions between organisms in their environments. Biotropica recently inaugurated a new paper category called “Natural History Field Note....

onlinelibrary.wiley.com

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Seth Bordenstein @symbionticism.bsky.social · Dec 13

Happy 100th Birthday #Wolbachia! This "Mother of all Microbes" is in the bright spotlight at The Scientist www.the-scientist.com/wolbachia-tu...

Wolbachia Turns 100: The Journey of a Triumphant Endosymbiont

In a century, Wolbachia has gone from a master reproductive manipulator to a partner in the fight against pathogens, exemplifying how a microbe can shape hosts and diseases.

www.the-scientist.com

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Rob Foley @robfoley.bsky.social · Dec 9

King’s College Cambridge has just announced a Research Fellowship on the topic of Symbiosis and/or Coevolution for early career researchers.

www.kings.cam.ac.uk/about/work-a...

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Emily Hornett @bolinabug.bsky.social · Dec 4

Me?

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Emily Hornett @bolinabug.bsky.social · Dec 4

Hi Joe, can you add me? Thanks

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Grant Hughes @mosquitomicrobe.bsky.social · Nov 17

So here is a Wolbachia starter pack. Please let me know if you'd like to join or have other suggestions.

go.bsky.app/FTCKEyB

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Ferris Jabr @ferrisjabr.bsky.social · Nov 27

I was deeply disappointed by the lack of nature/science/climate/enviro on many major end-of-year book lists—so I decided to make my own!

Introducing: ✨🎁📚 The 2024 Holiday Gift Guide to Nature & Science Books ✨🎁📚

Please share: Let's make this go viral in time for Black Friday / holiday shopping!

A collage of book covers of new nature & science books. Featured here are Atlas Obscura Wild Life, Dinosaurs at the Dinner Party, Every Living Thing, Alien Earths, Becoming Earth, and Deep Water

A collage of book covers of new nature & science books. Featured here are Frostbite, The Inner Clock, How to Kill an Asteroid, The Great River, The Last Fire Season, and Hoof Beats

A collage of book covers of new nature & science books. Featured here are The Serviceberry, Not the End of the World, Nature's Ghosts, Meet the Neighbors, The Light Eaters, and Our Moon

A collage of book covers of new nature & science books. Featured here are Turning to Stone, The Weight of Nature, What If We Get It Right?, Waves in An Impossible Sea, The Tree Collectors, and Why We Remember

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mara lawniczak @marakat.bsky.social · Nov 25

last couple days to apply (for free! from anywhere in the world!) to the Sanger 2025 PhD Programme — Deadline: 28th November 2024 (09:00 GMT)

For more info, visit www.sanger.ac.uk/about/study/...

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Shaun Cross @shauntcross.bsky.social · Nov 10

Been waiting a while for this cool story to come out. Detecting viruses from museum #drosophila samples >100 years old! www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...

Sequencing RNA from old, dried specimens reveals past viromes and properties of long-surviving RNA

Recovery of virus sequences from old samples provides an opportunity to study virus evolution and reconstruct historic virus host interactions. Studies of old virus sequences have mainly relied on DNA...

www.biorxiv.org

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Darren Obbard @darrenobbard.bsky.social · Nov 27

#PhD Advert: Please share! Are you looking for a PhD studentship in comparative- or population-genomics, using 300+ species of #Drosophila and 1000+ genomes of #melanogaster? #Entomology #Genomics #PopGen #Phylogenetics

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Emily Hornett @bolinabug.bsky.social · Nov 22

Emily Hornett