Lightnews — Scholar-powered news

Rebecca Brewer

@brewerbiology.bsky.social

200 followers 320 following 54 posts

High School Biology Teacher, Biology Now Textbook Author, Educational Resource Developer, Science Editor, and Teacher Ambassador https://www.linkedin.com/in/rebecca-brewer-17502442/

www.linkedin.com

Posts Media Videos Starter Packs

Pinned

Rebecca Brewer @brewerbiology.bsky.social · May 27

Honored to be selected for the first cohort of SCL Educator Ambassadors! I love how the films are centered on getting to know the scientist behind the science, storytelling at its best! Thanks for the opportunity to uplift scientists. I am enjoying authoring for you & getting to know the SCL team!

Science Communication Lab @scicommlab.bsky.social · May 27

Meet the SCL Educator Ambassadors! 👩‍🔬👨‍🏫🌟

These award-winning #STEMTeachers are using film + storytelling to bring real-world science into classrooms through freely accessible films & resources.

Learn more: bit.ly/sclambassadors
#ScienceEd #NGSS #SCLAmbassador #SCLAmbassadors

SCL Educator Ambassadors

Meet the 2025 SCL Educator Ambassadors—high school biology teachers bringing real-world science to classrooms through storytelling, collaboration, and innovative lesson design.

bit.ly

Reposted by Rebecca Brewer

Galactic Polymath Education Studio (GP) @galacticpolymath.com · 29d

"...it checks all the boxes — authentic science, student-led inquiry, & ready-to-go NGSS-aligned materials..." 😊

Check out this guest post from @brewerbiology.bsky.social after teaching our free unit about @reichertfroglab.bsky.social's research 🐸🔊🧪 www.galacticpolymath.com/blog/what-ca...

What Can Singing Frogs Teach Us About Evolutionary Tradeoffs? — Galactic Polymath

Will female frogs be attracted to males who produce many short calls or to males with fewer, longer calls? This evolutionary tradeoff was the question my high school biology students investigated in t...

www.galacticpolymath.com

3 8

Reposted by Rebecca Brewer

Patrick Vallely @pjvphotography.bsky.social · Aug 28

"Pat, why do you carry that ridiculous 600mm lens on long hikes?"

Buddy, I can see mountains reflected in the eyes of a trailside pika.

Tighter crop of the same pika, focusing on its head.

An even tighter crop, focusing more on the pika's eye.

An extremely tight crop of the pika's eye, emphasizing their reflection of an early morning mountain scene.

640 11K 43K

Rebecca Brewer @brewerbiology.bsky.social · Aug 23

They ended the experiment when either copulation or cannibalism occurred with the pair! 😂

Curious news @curiousnews.bsky.social · Aug 22

Female Jumping Spiders Of Two Species Prefer The Sexy Red Males Of One, Leading To Hybridization

Females of both species preferred the males with sexy red legs.

www.iflscience.com

Rebecca Brewer @brewerbiology.bsky.social · Aug 8

An inspiring workshop in Long Beach on ocean plastics hosted by Algalita Marine Research and Education. Highlights were collecting beach nurdles, seeing urban sea 🐢, & a homegrown dinner @ Captain Charles Moore's house, who raised the alarm on the Great Pacific Garbage Patch.

#nurdlestoturtles

Rebecca Brewer @brewerbiology.bsky.social · Jul 1

Looking to bring real-world stories into your classroom?

I’ve been using free films + classroom guides from @scicommlab.bsky.social‬, and they have changed how I teach science.

🔗 Learn more: bit.ly/scleducators
✍️ Sign up: bit.ly/sclsignup
🎥 Explore films: bit.ly/freesciencef...
#SCLAmbassadors

Free Videos & Resources for Science Teachers

Our videos teach the who, how, and why of science Inspire deep learning with our free content! Learn More Sign Up for Free Our content aligns with science standards and supports student outcomes of......

bit.ly

1 3

Rebecca Brewer @brewerbiology.bsky.social · Jun 29

Spent a week in Oregon w/ Project ICE & COLDEX-Center for Oldest Ice Exploration. From holding 5,000 year old ice & seeing the gases trapped is inside, to sampling a 60,000 year old ice core (& keeping it afterward!), to seeing foraminifera fossils as climate indicators…it was an amazing week! ❤️🧊

Reposted by Rebecca Brewer

Science Friday @scifri.bsky.social · Jun 27

They’re popular, they’re polarizing, and at this point, we’ve all heard about them: GLP-1 medications like Ozempic. Here’s how they actually work, from the former FDA commissioner who’s taken them.

How Do GLP-1 Drugs Override Our Biology?

In his new book, a former FDA commissioner unpacks the latest science on metabolism, weight loss, and how GLP-1 drugs actually work.

www.sciencefriday.com

1 10 40

Reposted by Rebecca Brewer

Diana Fulmer @dianafulmer.bsky.social · Jun 27

Did you know that sea slugs steal chloroplasts from algae as portable snacks?! Neither did I, but a new Cell paper demonstrates that they do. 🐌🧪

My favorite part is the researchers called the storage for these stolen hors d’oeuvres “kleptosomes” 😂🥰

Summary from Nature & Cell paper linked below.

‘Wildest thing’: solar-powered slug steals chloroplasts and stores them for emergencies

Marine creatures house contraband structures in special organelles, which the animal raids for food in times of need.

www.nature.com

5 39 130

Reposted by Rebecca Brewer

Kew Gardens @rbgkew.bsky.social · Jun 27

BIG NEWS! We’ve found that ash trees are fighting back against ash dieback disease! 🌳💪

Scientists at Kew & QMUL ‪@qmul.bsky.social have discovered that young ash trees are evolving resistance to this devastating fungus - & fast 🌍

Read the story👉 www.kew.org/read-and-wat...

#PlantScience #SciNews

8 150 370

Reposted by Rebecca Brewer

Lee = MS squared 🐟🌊🏳️‍⚧️ @aquaticenby.bsky.social · Jun 27

If, like me, you wore glasses in school, you're gonna have some empathy for our #FishOfTheWeek. In the photo below, the four-eyed fish doesn't look very strange at all. But trust me, these guys are far stranger than they seem at first glance
1/5

A four-eyed fish at the surface of the water. He is light gray in color, with dark gray fins. His eyes stick above the water, much like a crocodile only cuter

1 10 25

Reposted by Rebecca Brewer

Live Science | Latest science news and articles for those with … @livescience.com.web.brid.gy · Jun 13

'Completely new and totally unexpected finding': Iron deficiency in pregnancy can cause 'male' mice to develop female organs

Low iron levels can flip the genetic switch on a mouse's sex during development, causing XY embryos to grow female features. But it's not clear whether the effect applies to humans.

www.livescience.com

1 1

Reposted by Rebecca Brewer

Science Magazine @science.org · Jun 12

A new study confirms race and ethnicity are not valid substitutes for ancestry in genetic studies. scim.ag/3SNgwEo

Race, ethnicity don’t match genetic ancestry, according to a large U.S. study

Data from the All of Us program confirm what many geneticists have long promoted

scim.ag

24 120

Reposted by Rebecca Brewer

Elizabeth Warren @warren.senate.gov · Jun 9

RFK Jr.‘s extreme anti-vax views — and his related conflicts of interest — were a huge problem during his confirmation process.

So he promised not to change the vaccine advisory panel.

Today, he fired every single expert on that panel. It's a public health disaster.

RFK Jr. ousts entire CDC vaccine advisory committee

Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. has removed every member of a scientific committee that advises the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention on how to use vaccines.

apnews.com

1.4K 6.3K 17K

Rebecca Brewer @brewerbiology.bsky.social · Jun 3

One of the most thoughtful end of the year gifts from a student that used to live in Hawaii and he made it himself, so talented! Happy Summer everyone! 🥰 😎🌺

Rebecca Brewer @brewerbiology.bsky.social · May 29

Students examined plastics in our environment by sampling the air for microfibers (there were lots!), viewing H2O samples from the Great Pacific Garbage Patch, sifting through ocean beach sand (many nurdles & microplastics). Looking forward to learning more of the impacts this summer with Algalita!

Rebecca Brewer @brewerbiology.bsky.social · May 27

Science Communication Lab @scicommlab.bsky.social · May 27

SCL Educator Ambassadors

Meet the 2025 SCL Educator Ambassadors—high school biology teachers bringing real-world science to classrooms through storytelling, collaboration, and innovative lesson design.

bit.ly

Reposted by Rebecca Brewer

Coral City Camera @coralcitycamera.bsky.social · May 24

Believe it or not, all three of these fish are the same species… the bluehead wrasse. Wrasses are protogynous hermaphrodites, meaning they transition from female to male over the course of their lives. Each phase can look radically different from each other as evidenced here #coralcitycamera

220 1.5K 10K

Rebecca Brewer @brewerbiology.bsky.social · May 22

Using remote sensing, students tracked bats in the woodlot behind our school and learned about WNS (white-nose syndrome), a fungus spreading among native 🦇 populations, interrupting their hibernation and killing bats in Michigan and other states. #place-basedteaching

Rebecca Brewer @brewerbiology.bsky.social · May 19

AP Bio learned about parental care to discover mom & dad pigeons make milk by performing a mock brain biopsy & ELISA test for the presence of prolactin. Then modeled prolactin gene activation & learned of other lactating non-mammals. The 3rd case study I authored for Science Communication Lab! 🙂

1 2

Rebecca Brewer @brewerbiology.bsky.social · May 15

It is projected to be released in early 2026 (I think!) and will be on the SCL site.

Rebecca Brewer @brewerbiology.bsky.social · May 15

Ss predicted the “flashier sex” in Mexican boulder spiny lizards to learn females court males! Then did a dating card mingle w/ other examples & read abstracts before
modeling how both nature (hormones) + nurture (nematode load) influence coloration. A case study I wrote for @scicomlab.bsky.social

1 1

Reposted by Rebecca Brewer

tamrakat @tamrakat.bsky.social · May 13

Image of library book display labeled:

“It's A Warning Not An Instruction Manual.”

Books on display:
• On Tyranny
• Twenty Lessons From
The 21st Century
• 1984
• A Handmaids Tale
• Diary of Anne Frank
• Parable of The Sower
• Fahrenheit 451
• Animal Farm
• Brave New World

~TAiLS of a Bookworm

430 6.1K 26K

Rebecca Brewer @brewerbiology.bsky.social · May 13

Look forward to this day every year where my students get to learn suturing from a real cardiac surgery PA. Thanks Dr. Jose Valdez, Dr. Thomas Meitzler, and Annie Meitzler, RN for teaching my AP Biology classes this skill!

Rebecca Brewer @brewerbiology.bsky.social · May 9

AP Bio students determined why okapi at the local zoo are not breeding by analyzing their urine cortisol levels, examining their zoo enclosure, modeling the HPA-axis, & redesigned their zoo enclosure to reduce their stress & encourage breeding. Based on @BeccaCalisi research & a @scicommlab film.

2 3

Rebecca Brewer @brewerbiology.bsky.social · May 9

Fun day having students listen and view 🐸 call spectrograms then calculate the call durations and frequencies to determine who will attract the most frog ladies! Students learned about tradeoffs, either long calls or frequent calls, you can’t have both! Great lessons by @galacticpolymath.com