Lightnews — Scholar-powered news

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Dr Matt Pope @mattpope.bsky.social · 7h

Great interview with Svante Pääbo Source: EL PAÍS English
search.app/WcjQz
🏺🦣🧪 🧬

Svante Pääbo, father of paleogenetics: ‘The reason for the Neanderthals’ extinction lies in how numerous we’ve become’

The Nobel Prize winner in Medicine is investigating genetic changes that could have given our species a competitive advantage, and the possibility of extracting the genome of the Flores hobbit

search.app

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Chris Murphy @chrismurphyct.bsky.social · 1d

This has nothing to do with crime. This is an attempt to crush political dissent.

Never before, in our entire 250 year history, has the military or immigration agents been used like this. It's dystopian, illegal, and it should stop.

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John Pfaff @johnpfaff.bsky.social · 23h

Um, ICE just coldly shot an unarmed PRIEST in the head w a pepper ball when he (and everyone around him) clearly posed no threat.

For the crime of … complaining about government policy.

Core 1A speech.

With cameras rolling, they’re sniping priests for sport.

Kurt @flglchicago.bsky.social · 1d

Here’s video of the incident

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Human Evolution Research Institute at University of Cape Town @heriuct.bsky.social · 17h

The #TaungChild has been silent for over 2 million years — until now.

Our new podcast takes you back to 1924 #SouthAfrica, where one fossil would upend colonial narratives to centre human origins #Africa.

🌍Unburied Season 2: The Taung Child
🔗 Listen: linktr.ee/arcdocs

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Michelle A. Rodrigues 🐒 @marspidermonkey.bsky.social · 1d

I love gibbon songs! #primates

Oakland Zoo @oaklandzoo.bsky.social · 1d

Here it is, the signature soundtrack of Oakland Zoo (sound UP 🎶)

Gibbons make these whooping sounds for many reasons -- to send an alert about predators, as mating calls, to announce their territory to neighbors, or to strengthen social bonding.

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David Forbes @davidforbes.bsky.social · 2d

Whenever anarchism — or any idea more radical than the status quo — gets dismissed as unserious, it's worth remembering the current system runs on things like "we put all the money on a scam machine that tells rich dipshits they're god."

Justin Hendrix @justinhendrix.bsky.social · 2d

"The hundreds of billions of dollars companies are investing in AI now account for an astonishing 40 per cent share of US GDP growth this year... In a way, then, America has become one big bet on AI."

America is now one big bet on AI

It’s seen as the magic fix for every threat to the US economy

www.ft.com

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jamelle @jamellebouie.net · 4d

also, in keeping with Vance’s view of american identity, only white people are fully American with the right to critique or dissent. nonwhites must show proper gratitude (supporting Trump or marrying JD Vance) before they can speak critically of the country (in approved ways, of course)

Jess Calarco @jessicacalarco.com · 4d

Weaponized gratitude is a key tool in the abuser's toolkit. The goal is to convince the victim that they owe the abuser so much, they should feel guilty for wanting to complain.

Tweet from the VP:
Joy Reid has had such a good life in this country. It's been
overwhelmingly kind and gracious to her. She is far wealthier than most.
Yet she oozes with contempt.
My honest, non-trolling advice to Joy Reid is that you'd be a much
happier person if you showed a little gratitude

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Charles C Roseman @evoroseman.bsky.social · 5d

Do you know anyone with an interest in pursuing a PhD studying the genetics, development, and evolution of skeletal morphology and life history? If so please encourage them to apply to work with me through any of the University of Illinois' EEB or PEEC programs. 1/4 🧪🦷🦴🐭🐒

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Zach Cofran @dizachster.bsky.social · 5d

Back in the glass workshop, switching from arboreal to aquatic mammals

Stained glass pieces cut and arranged as a walrus face

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Jacob T. Levy @jacobtlevy.bsky.social · 5d

Very possibly no political official in history has made so much corrupt money at a pace like this. Mobutu and Marcos looted a greater share of their countries’ wealth over decades but in absolute terms and in speed, Trump shamelessly puts them to shame.

Carl Quintanilla @carlquintanilla.bsky.social · 6d

“.. no modern American president has positioned his family to make so much money while in the White House. Already, since the early days of his reelection campaign, he’s more than doubled his net worth to about $5.4 billion.”

@bloomberg.com
www.bloomberg.com/features/202...

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Cengiz Yar @cengizyar.com · 6d

shocking details out of an ICE raid on an apartment building in South Shore area of Chicago on September 30th abc7chicago.com/post/ice-chi...

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Michelle A. Rodrigues 🐒 @marspidermonkey.bsky.social · 6d

As a primatologist, Jane Goodall was a huge inspiration to me. I admired the way she describes chimpanzee behavior with such detail and empathy, and she’s inspired so many people and advocated for chimpanzee conservation and welfare.

However, I'm dismayed at what her narrative leaves out (1/10)

Photo of Jane Goodall in the center, signing a book, with three women standing slightly hunched behind her. A very young Michelle is to the right, smiling.

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Paige Madison @fossilhistory.bsky.social · 7d

#OnThisDay in 1861, Charles Darwin wrote to his friend "But I am very poorly today and very stupid and hate everybody and everything." n.pr/3kVZvon

Black-and-white portrait photograph of an older man , darwin, with a long, full white beard and receding hairline, wearing a dark coat. He looks to the right in a serious, contemplative pose.

A small piece of handwritten text in cursive ink on paper, difficult to read but appearing to say: “But I am very poorly today & very stupid & hate everybody & everything.”

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Cara Ocobock @caraocobock.bsky.social · 7d

New paper out! This was a fun collaboration with Dr. Trent Holliday, Libby Cowgill, and Scott Maddux to work up a broad review on Neanderthal cold adaptations ranging from technological to physiological. This is a good one for teaching.

We referred to our collaboration as the "Coldies but Goodies"

Neandertal Cold Adaptation: Technological, Anatomical, and Physiological Responses to Cold Stress in One of Our Closest Fossil Relatives

Neandertals occupied western Eurasia for over 100 000 years, repeatedly enduring climates that ranged from seasonally cold to glacial. This paper reexamines the question of Neandertal cold adaptation...

onlinelibrary.wiley.com

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Louis Römer @lromeranth.bsky.social · 10d

A good example showing that conservative propaganda works not through, subtle, clever reframing or spin, but well funded repetition of falsehoods so relentless it rewires brains and memories.

Tom Scocca @tomscocca.bsky.social · 12d

Here are two of the most influential people in liberal media, David Remnick and Ezra Klein, telling each other outright lies about what the 2016 Democratic presidential candidate said because years of exposure to conservative grievance media pounded the original facts of the case out of their skulls

Screenshot of text:

both our liberalism and our illiberalism inside himself. After him, I think, this began to break down. Trump rises and you have, say, the Hillary Clinton “deplorables” speech, which is—

Which was a deplorable speech.

The worst word in that speech is “irredeemable.” She says that people voting for Trump are “irredeemable.” When you begin to talk like that, it’s a severing of political community.

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Micah @rincewind.run · 11d

that we have built an alternate media ecosystem in which every American city is an apocalyptic hellhole - completely unmoored from reality - and the political system has collapsed to the point that the president can use this fabrication to send troops against his own citizens is a staggering failure

Aaron Rupar @atrupar.com · 11d

Trump says he’s authorized Hegseth to use “Full Force” against Antifa in “War ravaged” Portland

At the request of Secretary of Homeland Security, Kristi Noem, I am directing Secretary of War, Pete Hegseth, to provide all necessary Troops to protect War ravaged Portland, and any of our ICE Facilities under siege from attack by Antifa, and other domestic terrorists. I am also authorizing Full Force, if necessary. Thank you for your attention to this matter!

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Rebecca Sear @rebeccasear.bsky.social · 11d

Standing up for science is one way to push back against political attacks on the university sector 👇 Experts in biology and anthropology have put together this statement to counter misinformation about race. Please consider signing and sharing

Stacy Farina @stacyfarina.bsky.social · Sep 2

Trump's very first example of the Smithsonian's "corrosive ideology" was an exhibit that correctly stated "Race is a human invention." How is scientific consensus (that biological races don't exist in humans) corrosive? We are asking scientists to co-sign our statement: forms.gle/kqKQF9CZ3jPB...

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Marta Mirazon Lahr @martamlahr.bsky.social · 11d

#ESHE2025
Amelie Beaudet ‘A century after the Taung child: New insights into the evolutionary history of Australopithecus’
High var at Sterkfontein– signature of adaptive radiation? Brain sulci patterns, arteries, face shape, inner ear, verts– exploring morph disparity!!
Fantastic last talk ♥️!!!

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Louis Römer @lromeranth.bsky.social · 11d

Now that authoritarian oligarchs are consolidating their hold over US media, it is going to be increasingly easier to see that liberalism needs socialism to survive

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Marta Mirazon Lahr @martamlahr.bsky.social · 11d

#ESHE2025
Julide Kubat ‘Combined paleoproteomics and morphological evidence reveal the evolutionary history of Meganthropus palaeojavanicus’
Very high div in Sangiran homs, but dental morph convergence w Pongo..
1st palaeoprots fr Sangiran 🤩! exclude Pongo ID.
Meganthropus EDJ morph aff to eHoms !

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Dr. Jessica L Ware @jessicalwarelab.bsky.social · 12d

Join us! We are hiring a new #curator at the #AMNH in #Vertebrate #Zoology careers.amnh.org/postings/4600 #academicjobs #tenuretrack

Assistant Curator, Vertebrate Zoology

The Division of Vertebrate Zoology at the American Museum of Natural History (AMNH) seeks an Assistant Curator in either the Department of Ornithology, Ichthyology, or Mammalogy to start on or after J...

careers.amnh.org

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Zach Cofran @dizachster.bsky.social · 12d

Showing some work in progress at #ESHE2025 - Homo naledi inner ears, inside-out #FossilFriday

(with @ameliebeaudet.bsky.social Gideon Chinamatira and @johnhawks.net)

Nerd standing next to research poster presentation titled “The bony labyrinth of Homo naledi”

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Amélie Beaudet @ameliebeaudet.bsky.social · 14d

We are getting ready for #ESHE2025 in Paris! 🎉
The #LHOSA #CoEvol #BrAIn team will share exciting new results on hominin evolution—talks & posters you do not want to miss.🧵👇 @palevoprim.bsky.social @cnrsecologie.bsky.social @univpoitiers.bsky.social

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Keneiloe.bsky.social @keneiloe.bsky.social · 14d

let’s spotlight the new kid on the block…UW105. The “newest” hominin fossil bearing site, is one to keep an eye on, not just for its abundance of fossils,but the research and technical team on the ground making discoveries everyday.

#HeritageDay #SouthAfrica

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European Society for the Study of Human Evolution @eshesociety.bsky.social · 14d

The #ESHE2025 meeting in Paris starts tomorrow (please use this hashtag for sharing). If you are interested in the program, you find it here mcusercontent.com/9347aa3598d5... - Members have received an email for accessing the live stream! We hope you all enjoy the conference in person or online. /MW

mcusercontent.com

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