Lightnews — Scholar-powered news

Chris Marcum 📖 @csmarcum.sciences.social.ap.brid.gy · 5m

Mohawk on the Hill! Had a productive day today discussing data and science policy and federal worker capacity challenges with members of Congress and their staff.

1

Chris Marcum 📖 @csmarcum.sciences.social.ap.brid.gy · 9h

Excellent reporting by Carmela Guaglianone on the importance of longitudinal education data. Nice to see Stuart Buck quoted in her piece on DOGE's irresponsible cuts to the National Center for Education Statistics:

'He likened Trump's cuts to "someone showing up to your house and claiming they […]

Original post on sciences.social

sciences.social

1

Chris Marcum 📖 @csmarcum.sciences.social.ap.brid.gy · 5d

Next week, I'll join fellow Data Foundation Senior Fellow and former chief of data.gov Hyon Kim in a webinar to discuss what's been going on with the nation's federal data catalog.

🚨 Federal workers - if you're still furloughed by next Tuesday and want to attend please (re)register with your […]

Original post on sciences.social

sciences.social

2 1

Chris Marcum 📖 @csmarcum.sciences.social.ap.brid.gy · 5d

A few contacts reached out to ask about the "Out of Order" photo I posted alongside the dataindex.us blog post yesterday. It's available here for you to share and use for free under a Creative Commons CC-BY (attribution only) license:

https://flic.kr/p/2rwZoqM

The White House is Out of Order

A photograph of an out of order sign in front of the doors in the new executive office building courtyard on the White House campus. Photo is CC-BY 2025 Chris Marcum

www.flickr.com

2 1

Chris Marcum 📖 @csmarcum.sciences.social.ap.brid.gy · 6d

I had a great conversation with my academic sibling, Beth Jarosz on the dataindex.us team, all about what happens to federal data when the government is out of order during a shutdown.

https://dataindex.us/newsletter/article/3362b9b8-a993-4741-92a9-25c720adeb7a

A photograph of an out of order sign in front of the doors in the new executive office building courtyard on the White House campus.

Photo is CC-BY 2025 Chris Marcum

2

Chris Marcum 📖 @csmarcum.sciences.social.ap.brid.gy · 7d

Displaced workers: If you're looking for a gig while searching for a full-time job, Mercor has a lot of roles open for short-term projects leveraging broad subject matter expertise to improve AI systems (they need diverse input from legal perspectives, to statistics, to poets). The pay is decent […]

Original post on sciences.social

sciences.social

1

Chris Marcum 📖 @csmarcum.sciences.social.ap.brid.gy · 7d

AAAS and American Geophysical Union have issued statements on the shutdown and how bad it is for science.

https://lnkd.in/eSaxk2Et

https://lnkd.in/eyX8fBVi

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

lnkd.in

2

Chris Marcum 📖 @csmarcum.sciences.social.ap.brid.gy · 9d

"Where compute brings capability, data governance builds trust."

Eva Campo and I call for stronger, more transparent, data governance for AI in our Tech Policy Press today.

https://www.techpolicy.press/national-ai-ambitions-need-a-data-governance-backbone-rdaf-can-provide-it/

National AI Ambitions Need a Data Governance Backbone. RDaF Can Provide It. | TechPolicy.Press

Eva Campo and Christopher Steven Marcum argue that data governance is the missing layer for US AI leadership.

www.techpolicy.press

3 1

Chris Marcum 📖 @csmarcum.sciences.social.ap.brid.gy · 12d

AAAS and the Science Magazine family of journals have responded to The National Institutes of Health APC RFI:
https://www.aaas.org/news/response-nih-public-access-policy

Response on NIH public access policy | American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS)

www.aaas.org

1 4 5

Chris Marcum 📖 @csmarcum.sciences.social.ap.brid.gy · 16d

The Evidence Act requires agencies to expand access to their federal data assets. It is absolutely wasteful, if not unlawful, for U.S. Census Bureau to produce data that it then hides from the public. Jon Freeman and Democracy Forward are fighting to make sure that federal investments in LGBTQ+ […]

Original post on sciences.social

sciences.social

2

Chris Marcum 📖 @csmarcum.sciences.social.ap.brid.gy · 16d

In addition to providing the closing keynote at @osfair , I had the privilege of joining colleagues on a panel about the strange bedfellows of #openscience organized by my kickass friend Sara Rouhi. No holds barred in this frank discussion about efforts to co-opt the movement by distasteful […]

Original post on sciences.social

sciences.social

6 1

Chris Marcum 📖 @csmarcum.sciences.social.ap.brid.gy · 17d

Food insecurity is often a hidden source of suffering for American families. This survey shone a light onto the needs of some of the most vulnerable. One way to cover up the inhumane consequences of food program cuts (e.g. SNAP, meals on wheels, school lunch) is to simply stop collecting the […]

Original post on sciences.social

sciences.social

1 1

Chris Marcum 📖 @csmarcum.sciences.social.ap.brid.gy · 17d

Jack-o-Lantern mushrooms are popping up just in time for spooky season in Maryland. These can bioluminesce.
(Omphalotus sp.)

2 2

Chris Marcum 📖 @csmarcum.sciences.social.ap.brid.gy · 17d

@b0rk This is such a nice and accessible resource! Thank you.

Reposted by Chris Marcum 📖

Julia Evans @b0rk.social.jvns.ca.ap.brid.gy · 22d

added a cheat sheet to the official Git website https://git-scm.com/cheat-sheet

10 87 2

Chris Marcum 📖 @csmarcum.sciences.social.ap.brid.gy · 21d

Today is the final day at #osfair2025 at CERN kudos to the entire @osfair team for such a successful and impactful event. #openscience

CC-BY Christopher Steven Marcum 2025
Photograph of stainless steel sculpture titled "wandering the immeasurable" by artist Gayle Hermick

5 1

Chris Marcum 📖 @csmarcum.sciences.social.ap.brid.gy · 22d

Recently, UNL announced it was planning on shuttering its department of statistics. as part of a major budget shortfall response. Thankfully, the university is soliciting public feedback on these plans and you can submit yours here now:

https://apc.unl.edu/fall-2025-budget-reduction-feedback-form/

Chris Marcum 📖 @csmarcum.sciences.social.ap.brid.gy · 23d

Congratulations to Kamran Naim, PhD and the CERN Open Science team on the release of their Open Science Report : 2023/2024

https://cds.cern.ch/record/2942000/files/fulltext.pdf

1 1

Chris Marcum 📖 @csmarcum.sciences.social.ap.brid.gy · 24d

I'm listening to an audiobook of The Paris Library by Janet Skeslien Charles on my flight to Geneva for the Open Science Fair at CERN . I was tickled to hear one scene where a news anchor interviews "a member of the Union of Concerned Scientists about what would happen in the event of a nuclear […]

Original post on sciences.social

sciences.social

1

Chris Marcum 📖 @csmarcum.sciences.social.ap.brid.gy · 26d

The ethical, legal, and social implications program successfully protected society from many risks of harm in genomics. Alondra Nelson argues we need such a framework - post haste - for AI in this thoughtful letter to Science Magazine :

https://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/science.aeb0393

4 3

Chris Marcum 📖 @csmarcum.sciences.social.ap.brid.gy · 27d

PREreview responded to the NIH RFI on controlling costs associated with scholarly publishing today:

https://zenodo.org/records/17101620

PREreview response to the NIH NOT-OD-25-138 Request for Information on Maximizing Research Funds by Limiting Allowable Publishing Costs

This document was submitted by PREreview on September 11, 2025 in response to the NIH NOT-OD-25-138 Request for Information on Maximizing Research Funds by Limiting Allowable Publishing Costs (RFI). In addition to this letter, the organization submitted their responses to the specific questions in the RFI using the online comment form.

zenodo.org

1 1

Chris Marcum 📖 @csmarcum.sciences.social.ap.brid.gy · 28d

Michael Stebbins disagrees with Stuart Buck and I on aspects of our call for more transparency into unfunded grant applications while also advocating for using AI to learn from them. Without greater access (currently there's none, at least via NIH), there are no opportunities to do any learning […]

Original post on sciences.social

sciences.social

1

Chris Marcum 📖 @csmarcum.sciences.social.ap.brid.gy · Sep 6

A nice story on the entertainment value of improbable gambling outcomes:

https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/powerball-jackpot-hits-usd1-3-billion-but-is-your-usd2-bet-worth-it/

Powerball Jackpot Hits $1.3 Billion—But Is Your $2 Bet Worth It?

Winning more than $1 billion in Powerball is an exciting possibility, but keeping a cool math mind can help you decide whether that opportunity is worth your $2 bet

www.scientificamerican.com

1

Chris Marcum 📖 @csmarcum.sciences.social.ap.brid.gy · Sep 3

If you're writing responses to the The National Institutes of Health RFI on capping APCs and are looking for sources of evidence to include, here's a great resource from Stefanie Haustein , Eric Schares , Juan Pablo Alperin, Flavia Camargo , Constance Poitras & Dorothea Strecker […]

Original post on sciences.social

sciences.social

3 3

Chris Marcum 📖 @csmarcum.sciences.social.ap.brid.gy · Sep 3

@NSF is taking a huge step backward in its AI strategy by cancelling the AI2ES program.

https://balancedweather.substack.com/p/nsf-terminates-funding-for-its-main

NSF terminates funding for its main meteorology focused AI institute

In weather, lots of potential threats in the West this week

balancedweather.substack.com

1