Lightnews — Scholar-powered news

Reposted by Dave Hemprich-Bennett

George Monbiot @georgemonbiot.bsky.social · 5h

ME/CFS is a devastating condition that has long been denied, dismissed, psychologised and underdiagnosed. Research is at last starting to catch up with it, with glimmers of hope for those who have been left untreated for so long.
There's a huge BUT coming ...🧵
www.theguardian.com/society/2025...

Scientists develop first ‘accurate blood test’ to detect chronic fatigue syndrome

Research could offer hope for ME patients – but some experts urge caution and say more studies needed

www.theguardian.com

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Dave Hemprich-Bennett @davehb.bsky.social · 1h

Got my Covid vaccination!

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Dave Hemprich-Bennett @davehb.bsky.social · 2h

Yep! There’s several species of tropical bats that prey on birds too, and then bat-hawks specialising on bat roosts… a lot of predation from both sides

Reposted by Dave Hemprich-Bennett

Dave Hemprich-Bennett @davehb.bsky.social · 20h

Pretty incredible to see. Great tits have been known to feed on the brains of hibernating bats, so I guess it tracks 🦇

Hannah Scharf @hannah-scharf.bsky.social · 21h

Today I heard a pair of great tits just outside my office window, followed by a loud thump of something against the windowsill. I rolled up my blinds and to my surprise, there was a bat! This tit had knocked a bat from her roost and looked like he was thinking about lunch…

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Reposted by Dave Hemprich-Bennett

Dave Hemprich-Bennett @davehb.bsky.social · 16h

Just ecstatic to have a Labour chancellor bragging about removing protections for a very rare species. “I didn’t just use [that issue] as an example of how bad things were but set about fixing it.”

Their protection was a problem to be fixed, apparently. www.theguardian.com/environment/...

Rachel Reeves clears planning blockage amid ‘good relationship’ with developer

Exclusive: Chancellor says 20,000 homes were being held up due to ‘some snails that are a protected species or something’

www.theguardian.com

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Reposted by Dave Hemprich-Bennett

Robin Hayward 🌳 🏳️‍⚧️ @canopyrobin.com · 16h

These mood jewellery pronoun pins are probably the coolest things I've ever made but I need to sell about 180 more of them to break even.

Anyone want a magical colour-change pronoun pin? canopyrobin.etsy.com/listing/4376...

Robin Hayward 🌳 🏳️‍⚧️ @canopyrobin.com · 11d

Q: What do you get if you cross a mood ring with a pronoun pin?

A: My latest design at canopyrobin.etsy.com/listing/4376...

Please share!

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Reposted by Dave Hemprich-Bennett

Ainsley S @americanbeetles.bsky.social · 15h

Okay britpol is none of my business but this attitude fills me with incandescent rage

Rachel Reeves’ words about environmental delays to a housing development: “ She described the planning blockage as being due to "some snails on the site that are a protected species or something", adding:
"They are microscopic snails that you cannot even see, and they haven't been able to build there." The chancellor appeared to be referring to the little whirlpool ramshorn snail, which is 5mm in diameter, and one of the rarest creatures in Britain. It is an indicator of clean rivers and ponds…”

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Dave Hemprich-Bennett @davehb.bsky.social · 16h

bsky.app/profile/effi...

Effin' Birds @effinbirds.com · 19d

A painting of a bird beside the text "our expectations for you were low, but holy fuck"

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Dave Hemprich-Bennett @davehb.bsky.social · 16h

Somewhat bleakly appropriate that this species (the whirlpool ramson snail) is so rare as it needs unpolluted waterways.

There’s just no place for that sort of creature in modern Britain eh. Concrete over wherever they’re left

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Dave Hemprich-Bennett @davehb.bsky.social · 16h

Just ecstatic to have a Labour chancellor bragging about removing protections for a very rare species. “I didn’t just use [that issue] as an example of how bad things were but set about fixing it.”

Their protection was a problem to be fixed, apparently. www.theguardian.com/environment/...

Rachel Reeves clears planning blockage amid ‘good relationship’ with developer

Exclusive: Chancellor says 20,000 homes were being held up due to ‘some snails that are a protected species or something’

www.theguardian.com

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Dave Hemprich-Bennett @davehb.bsky.social · 19h

You’re very welcome

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Reposted by Dave Hemprich-Bennett

c0nc0rdance @c0nc0rdance.bsky.social · Mar 15

One of the amazing things about science is we will never run out of mysteries.

Take "Naturwissenschaften (2003) 90:495–500", which performed a survey of 10,000 dinosaur fossils for evidence of tumors in the bone.

I was prepared for yes, no, but what I wasn't prepared for was:
"only in hadrosaurs."

It's a black and white paper header for a short communication, and I've copied the text below. Please stop reading if you don't want the literal copy to be read to you.
"Naturwissenschaften (2003) 90:495–500
DOI 10.1007/s00114-003-0473-9
SHORT COMMUNICATION
B. M. Rothschild · D. H. Tanke · M. Helbling ·
L. D. Martin
Epidemiologic study of tumors in dinosaurs
Received: 16 June 2003 / Accepted: 29 August 2003 / Published online: 14 October 2003 Springer-Verlag 2003"

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Dave Hemprich-Bennett @davehb.bsky.social · 20h

Pretty incredible to see. Great tits have been known to feed on the brains of hibernating bats, so I guess it tracks 🦇

Hannah Scharf @hannah-scharf.bsky.social · 21h

Today I heard a pair of great tits just outside my office window, followed by a loud thump of something against the windowsill. I rolled up my blinds and to my surprise, there was a bat! This tit had knocked a bat from her roost and looked like he was thinking about lunch…

6 7 14

Reposted by Dave Hemprich-Bennett

Hannah Scharf @hannah-scharf.bsky.social · 21h

Today I heard a pair of great tits just outside my office window, followed by a loud thump of something against the windowsill. I rolled up my blinds and to my surprise, there was a bat! This tit had knocked a bat from her roost and looked like he was thinking about lunch…

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Reposted by Dave Hemprich-Bennett

Annika Barber @annikabarber.bsky.social · 21h

It’s time for the fly party with my fly friends! #CSHLDros

A cartoon from smbc captioned “the life of a scientist sounds way more fun if you describe it like you’re a 6 year old.” The scientist in the cartoon is wearing glasses and a teal polo. Their speech bubble says “I like flies and me and my friends look at flies all the time and sometimes the flies are neat and we tell our other friends about it and our friends also like flies and sometimes we have fly parties and so no we know a lot about flies.” The original cartoon said rocks, Annika photoshopped in flies.

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Reposted by Dave Hemprich-Bennett

Oxford Clarion @oxfordclarion.bsky.social · 21h

Delivering her annual Oration in the Sheldonian Theatre today, she said “Oxford is leading in AI”, citing applications including drug discovery, blood tests for cancer, and OUP’s AI-enabled assistants (while pointing out the Oxford Word of the Year was “brain rot”).

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Dave Hemprich-Bennett @davehb.bsky.social · 21h

Man we’re really going all-in on this huh

Oxford Clarion @oxfordclarion.bsky.social · 21h

Artificial intelligence will bring disruption “orders of magnitude bigger and faster than we have witnessed before, and we won’t have a generation or two to adapt as we had in the industrial revolution”, according to Oxford University’s Vice-Chancellor Irene Tracey.

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Reposted by Dave Hemprich-Bennett

DAVE! (like "Them!" but Dave) @daveexmachina.bsky.social · 1d

normal person: i just want a place to hang out with my friends
tech weirdo: and shitheads
np: no just my friends
tw: but what about hearing alternative views on race and gender?
np: we just want to hang out and goof around
tw: so where do the shitheads fit in then
np: no shitheads
tw: not following

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Dave Hemprich-Bennett @davehb.bsky.social · 1d

how dare you have other politics when america

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Dave Hemprich-Bennett @davehb.bsky.social · 1d

Nah, each of those is high enough for a party to earnestly claim having a ‘strong mandate for xyz’

Dave Hemprich-Bennett @davehb.bsky.social · 1d

Ah I think in this case she’d just drank too much milk. Which she then promptly ejected. God I hope it doesn’t last till she’s 7 😂😭

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Lex McMenamin (they/them) @leximcmenamin.com · 1d

Greta Thunberg, deported to Greece, says the targeting of the Sumud Flotilla is "not the story" @teenvogue.com — instead, she says:

"Israel once again violated international humanitarian law by preventing aid from getting into Gaza while people are being starved.”

Greta Thunberg On Her Detention: I'm "Not The Story" — It's Israel Violating International Humanitarian Law

“I could talk for a very, very long time about our mistreatment and abuses in our imprisonment. Trust me. But that is not the story.”

www.teenvogue.com

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Dave Hemprich-Bennett @davehb.bsky.social · 1d

Man, toddlers really can contain a spectacular amount of vomit

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Bethany Brookshire @beebrookshire.bsky.social · 1d

Some good advice in here but one critical piece I always give is this:

Get a hobby. Preferably a mildly social one. One that has NOTHING TO DO WITH SCIENCE. NOTHING.

You need friends. Not colleagues. FRIENDS. Friends who will love you no matter your research prospects...

Nature @nature.com · 1d

What's one piece of advice you'd give to someone considering a PhD?

We asked 3785 doctoral candidates across 107 countries for their hard-won wisdom
go.nature.com/4nDjJ7t

27 things we wish we’d known when we started our PhDs

Nature’s survey of PhD candidates reveals hard-won wisdom on choosing supervisors, managing mental health and surviving academic culture.

go.nature.com

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Reposted by Dave Hemprich-Bennett

Dave Hemprich-Bennett @davehb.bsky.social · 2d

Big fan of spoonbills. Every pose they do looks utterly ridiculous and I respect that

A black and white photo of a Eurasian spoonbill tilting its head far back so that only the underside of it and the weird bill can be seen

A black and white photo of a Eurasian spoonbill looking right at the camera, accentuating how weird the bill looks

A black and white photo of a Eurasian spoonbill from the side, looking backwards. Bill looks weird again

A black and white photo of a Eurasian spoonbill with its beak wide open, looking like a child’s bad drawing come to life

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