Lightnews — Scholar-powered news

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Nikolay Oskolkov @oskolkov.bsky.social · 4d

Our method, GENome EXogenous (GENEX) sequence detection, for identifying microbial-like regions in eukaryotic reference genomes is online in GigaScience track.smtpsendmail.com/9032119/c?p=...

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Pedro Brandão-Dias F Pinto @pedrobd.bsky.social · Jul 5

I had an idea—just a hunch, really— on how to link #Popgen and #eDNA.
I was lucky to be in a lab that embraced curiosity, open discussion, and let me run with it.

One year, many equations, and a few too many simulations later, here’s the result:

🧬 Preprint now live: doi.org/10.1101/2025...

Estimating Organism Abundance Using Within-Sample Haplotype Frequencies of eDNA Metabarcoding Data

Environmental DNA (eDNA) metabarcoding provides powerful insights into species presence and community composition, but remains limited in its ability to quantify species abundance or structure. Here, ...

doi.org

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Elaine Ayers @eayers0.bsky.social · Jul 3

I use BHL every single day in my research and teaching. I could not write my books or articles without it, I don't know what my students would do without it, and I would have to radically rethink my career without it. This is more critical with funding cuts. Please, please someone support BHL.

Trevor A. Branch @trevorabranch.bsky.social · Jul 2

Foundations: please step up and take over the Biodiversity Heritage Library (BHL). This is an absolutely essential scanned archive of all of the old journals and books from the 1500s to about 1920. Has been indispensable for my research.
about.biodiversitylibrary.org/call-for-sup...

Call for Support: – About BHL

about.biodiversitylibrary.org

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Trevor A. Branch @trevorabranch.bsky.social · Jul 2

In an unconscionable decision, the Smithsonian Institute has decided to no longer support the Biodiversity Heritage Library from 1 Jan 2026. Please someone step up and take it over.

Trevor A. Branch @trevorabranch.bsky.social · Jul 2

Foundations: please step up and take over the Biodiversity Heritage Library (BHL). This is an absolutely essential scanned archive of all of the old journals and books from the 1500s to about 1920. Has been indispensable for my research.
about.biodiversitylibrary.org/call-for-sup...

Call for Support: – About BHL

about.biodiversitylibrary.org

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Deon de Jager @ddj-sa.bsky.social · Jun 24

Congratulations, Mikkel!

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Anna Brüniche-Olsen @annabruniche.bsky.social · Jun 16

GenDivRange: A global dataset of geo-referenced population genetic diversity across species ranges #popgen #consgen www.nature.com/articles/s41...

GenDivRange: A global dataset of geo-referenced population genetic diversity across species ranges - Scientific Data

Scientific Data - GenDivRange: A global dataset of geo-referenced population genetic diversity across species ranges

www.nature.com

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Alex Wild @alexwild.bsky.social · Apr 21

Everyone should know about GBIF. It's an international biodiversity data aggregator. Museum collections, apps like eBird and iNaturalist, published datasets from the technical literature, all in one place. www.gbif.org

GBIF

Global Biodiversity Information Facility. Free and Open Access to Biodiversity Data.

www.gbif.org

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Alt National Park Service @altnps.bsky.social · Apr 19

Today was truly inspiring. Something happened that we’ve never seen before, you made noise in places that rarely see protests like this. Communities across traditionally conservative areas hosted historic turnouts.

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Saganism @sagan.bsky.social · Apr 19

Right Now, most of the American can relate to this message from the 90's.

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Sherrilyn Ifill @sifill.bsky.social · Apr 20

If you have a public platform & spent years calming everyone down, telling us Trump was not a danger,was not racist, & arguing that the best way to deal w/Trump was to laugh at him, berated ppl who used the word fascist, insisted that the two parties are the same, admit YOU WERE WRONG.

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Joyce White Vance @joycewhitevance.bsky.social · Apr 20

If you're struggling to keep all of the different immigration/deportation cases straight, I've got a post for you: open.substack.com/pub/joycevan...

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Dr Mark D. Scherz @markscherz.bsky.social · Apr 10

The Natural History Museum Denmark is hiring a new Tenure-Track Assistant Professor and Curator of (Vertebrate) Palaeontology! Could it be you or someone you know‽ spread the word! Really excited to have a new colleague to work on our amazing collections! 🧪🏛️

candidate.hr-manager.net/ApplicationI...

211-0238/25-2N Tenure-track Assistant Professor and Curator of Paleontology

Tenure-track Assistant Professor and Curator in Paleontology Natural History Museum Denmark Faculty of Science University of Copenhagen The Natural History Muse

candidate.hr-manager.net

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Deon de Jager @ddj-sa.bsky.social · Mar 24

Many, if not most, of us depend on open, accessible research infrastructure to do our work and improve the world around us. But political support for such systems is not always there, or can change rapidly - consider signing below mitigate some that risk.
investinopen.org/blog/stateme...

Statement of support for a global research ecosystem

Our global research ecosystem is at risk — it's time to invest in the tools and services that power research and scholarship.

investinopen.org

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PLOS Biology @plosbiology.org · Mar 19

Analysis of #IUCNRedList data on 67,217 animal spp, by @ashsimkins.bsky.social @billsutherland.bsky.social &co, reveals that a range of #conservation actions successfully conserved species at greatest risk of extinction, but rarely resulted in full recovery 🧪 @plosbiology.org plos.io/3XUzEDd

Species that have improved status following conservation efforts. From top-left to bottom-right: Mauritian kestrel (Falco punctatus ©Josh Noseworthy CC BY 2.0), Pemba flying fox (Pteropus voeltzkowi ©Nigel Voaden CC BY 4.0), Little spotted kiwi (Apteryx owenii ©Kimberley_collins CC BY 2.0), Sierra Juarez Brook frog (Duellmanohyla ignicolor ©Medardo_Arreortua CC BY 4.0), Cook’s petrel (Pteroroma cookii ©sussexbirder CC BY 2.0), European bison (Bison bonasus ©Oleg Kosterin CC BY 4.0), Utahm’s bush frog (Raorchestes uthamani ©Ansil B.R. CC BY 4.0), Iberian lynx (Lynx pardinus ©http://www.lynxexsitu.es CC BY 3.0), Humpback whale (Megaptera novaeangliae ©Christopher.Michel CC BY 2.0).

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Juan Antonio Rodríguez @jrotwitguez.bsky.social · Mar 7

A fantastic, critical and accurate piece on the 🦣mammoth de-extinction claims from Colossal, sparked by the woolly mice we’ve been seeing these days on the news. Some sentences are gold 👇🏽

www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...

✍️ by @adamrutherford.bsky.social

Reviving the woolly mammoth isn’t just unethical. It’s impossible | Adam Rutherford

At a time when US scientists are under attack from their own government, the illiteracy around these elephantine fantasies is dangerous, says geneticist Adam Rutherford

www.theguardian.com

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AaRC @aarc-community.bsky.social · Mar 7

On 21st of March we'll have a feedback session with MInAS to talk about animal #aDNA metadata and reporting. If you are producing ancient animal data, please join @ddj-sa.bsky.social and Ophélie Lebrasseur on the conversation to set up proper metadata standards. www.animal-adna.org/events/2025/...

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Timothée Poisot @ctrlalttim.com · Nov 23

Ecology & biodiversity folks! Reply to this post to join the science feed!

Checklist to help with verification

✅ Have posted a few times already
✅ Profile description not empty
✅ Have a profile picture
✅ Link to orcid, scholar, RG profile, etc, in the reply
ℹ️ DM only if anonymous account

🧪🌏

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Deon de Jager @ddj-sa.bsky.social · Feb 25

Please :)
orcid.org/0000-0003-43...

ORCID

orcid.org

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Alt National Park Service @altnps.bsky.social · Feb 22

“Operation Whirlwind”

What’s Happening Now?
In 2025, Operation Whirlwind was launched under Interim U.S. Attorney Ed Martin to investigate alleged threats against employees of the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE).

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Federico Sánchez Quinto @fsanchezquinto.bsky.social · Jan 5

Interested in a project in the intersection of ancient DNA and Deep Learning for characterizing genetic variation? Do send a DM. Thank your for your RT!

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Alexei Drummond @alexeidrummond.bsky.social · Feb 14

Check out our new method for summarising BEAST trees. The CCD0-MAP tree gives much more accurate results than MCC tree. It returns the tree that maximises the product of sampled clade probabilities regardless of whether that tree was sampled. Highly recommend :)

journals.plos.org/ploscompbiol...

Accurate Bayesian phylogenetic point estimation using a tree distribution parameterized by clade probabilities

Author summary Our research introduces novel methods to analyse a set of phylogenetic tree topologies, such as those generated by Bayesian Markov Chain Monte Carlo algorithms. We define a new model fo...

journals.plos.org

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derek guy @dieworkwear.bsky.social · Feb 16

Not true. I'll give you some examples of when styles crossed over from womenswear to menswear, and how men have worn straight-up womenswear or just feminine styles in cool ways. 🧵

A screenshot from Twitter.

The original tweet reads: "Rapper Kenderick Lamar wore size 29 women's jeans to Super Bowl LIX." The tweet garnered over a thousand replies, most negative.

I (Derek Guy) screenshotted that tweet and wrote: "so funny to see history repeat itself. men who wear slim fit and stretch denim—both of which were once considered strictly for women—criticizing kendrick for wearing flares bc they were on the women's aisle. in ten years, you'll be in flares clutching pearls about something else"

Then another user replied to my tweet, saying: "Wearing women’s clothes has never been in style, homo."

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Juan Antonio Rodríguez @jrotwitguez.bsky.social · Feb 12

New paper out! 📄
My first adventures in (ancient) metagenomics. 🦠

“Exploring DNA degradation in situ and in museum storage through genomics and metagenomics” www.nature.com/articles/s42...

Curious about the water color painting (see ALT text)? 🦌

Thread (Bluetorial?) with findings!
🧶👇 (1/n)

Caption by professor B Gronnow.

Water color by Nuka Konrad Godtfredsen (2021). Copyright: The National Museum of Denmark.

"Hunting a herd of swimming caribou from kayak at the site, Aasivissuit, in the early 18th century West Greenland as interpreted by the Greenlandic artist, Nuka Godtfredsen. Through communal drive hunts the Inuit secured large amounts of caribou meat and fat for consumption as well as hide and antler for raw materials and trade. Large heaps of bones from the butchering of the animals piled up as waste in the midden area of the settlement, Three centuries later archaeologists excavated the bones, which were analyzed, including studies of preservation conditions of ancient DNA contained in the bones and soil."

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Bharath Nair (ഭരത് നായർ) @bharathabnair.bsky.social · Feb 13

'Education is Resistance' - quoted from a heartfelt essay in @londonreview.bsky.social by Malaka Shwaikh.

Alan Lester @alanlester.bsky.social · Feb 13

Masters scholarships for Palestinian students at Sussex. Please disseminate?

www.sussex.ac.uk/broadcast/re...

University announces new scholarships for Palestinian students

These scholarships will provide fully-funded support for two Palestinian students, with a particular focus on those impacted by the conflict in Gaza

www.sussex.ac.uk

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Dr. Kat Napaaqtuk❄️ @napaaqtuk.bsky.social · Feb 12

From reddit: a letter from a postdoc who survived the Bolsonaro years. This is helpful framing for how to science in this administration. 🧪

www.reddit.com/r/labrats/s/...

From the labrats community on Reddit

Explore this post and more from the labrats community

www.reddit.com

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