Lightnews — Scholar-powered news

Reposted by Dr. Julia

Stanford University @stanford.edu · 19h

Congratulations to 2025 #MacFellow William Tarpeh! The Stanford chemical engineer is working on sustainable and practical solutions to treat wastewater and recover valuable mineral resources.

🗞️: stanford.io/3IZIBqF

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IUCr2026 @iucr2026.bsky.social · 15d

Do you like things to be orderly but still a little unpredictable? Check out sessions like “Quasicrystalline, incommensurate modulated, and composite phases” or “Approximate Periodic Symmetry”, just to name a couple.

Browse the microsymposium list at www.iucr2026.org/mic...

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Jacquelyn Gill @jacquelyngill.bsky.social · 15d

The federal government has censored the work of dozens of scientists, including work by my lab, on the impacts of climate change on Acadia National Park. Signs have been removed from Cadillac and Great Meadow. They’re also removing signs about the Wabanaki’s sacred connections to Cadillac.

Signs Referencing Climate Change Along with Web Pages Removed from Acadia National Park

The Bar Harbor Story is generously sponsored by The Witham Family Hotels Charitable Fund.

barharborstory.substack.com

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Prof Mike Yearworth @mikeyearworth.bsky.social · 18d

"In a landmark study, OpenAI researchers reveal that large language models will always produce plausible but false outputs, even with perfect data, due to fundamental statistical and computational limits."

www.computerworld.com/article/4059...

OpenAI admits AI hallucinations are mathematically inevitable, not just engineering flaws

In a landmark study, OpenAI researchers reveal that large language models will always produce plausible but false outputs, even with perfect data, due to fundamental statistical and computational limi...

www.computerworld.com

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AAUP @aaup.org · Aug 18

Another in a long list of shamefully backward moves this administration has taken that weakens American higher education.

CNN @cnn.com · Aug 18

US State Department has revoked more than 6,000 student visas, official says: cnn.it/45v8wxC

US State Department has revoked more than 6,000 student visas, official says | CNN Politics

The State Department has revoked more than 6,000 student visas this year, a State Department official said Monday, as the Trump administration continues its crackdown on some international students it...

cnn.it

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Alistair Kitchen @alistairkitchen.bsky.social · Jun 19

Thank you, everyone, for the support. You can now read my full account at The New Yorker.

www.newyorker.com/news/the-led...

How My Reporting on the Columbia Protests Led to My Deportation

As an Australian who wrote about the demonstrations while on campus, I gave my phone a superficial clean before flying to the U.S. I underestimated what I was up against.

www.newyorker.com

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Dr. Julia @drdjulia.bsky.social · Jul 24

... as well as a novel reverse transformation pathway that is more complex than any of those proposed or observed previously (involving a 3-fold supercell).

Read more about it in the Cornell Chronicle: news.cornell.edu/stories/2025...

@cornelluniversity.bsky.social
@cornellengineering.bsky.social

Study captures crystal phase changes in unprecedented detail | Cornell Chronicle

Using custom-built computer simulations, Cornell researchers have visualized solid-solid phase transitions in unprecedented detail, capturing the motion of every particle in a theoretical material as ...

news.cornell.edu

Dr. Julia @drdjulia.bsky.social · Jul 24

... (i.e., the Bain, Nishiyama–Wassermann, and Kurdjumov–Sachs orientation relationships).

We also report: a persistent intermediate body-centered tetragonal phase, a microstructure-dependent transformation pathway, ...

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Dr. Julia @drdjulia.bsky.social · Jul 24

Our paper in Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. @pnas.org on simulating solid–solid phase transformations particle-by-particle is online now: www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/...

We observed all three canonical pathways between the body-centered cubic and face-centered cubic sphere packings in unprecedented detail ...

PNAS

Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS), a peer reviewed journal of the National Academy of Sciences (NAS) - an authoritative source of high-impact, original research that broadly spans...

www.pnas.org

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Dr. Julia @drdjulia.bsky.social · Jul 13

Essentially all of our work is enabled through grants and wouldn't be possible without federal funding. Federal grants enable scientific research and the livelihood and training of researchers and graduate students at universities.
@cornelluniversity.bsky.social
@cornellengineering.bsky.social

Dr. Julia @drdjulia.bsky.social · Jul 13

This work was conducted primarily by Dr. Reum Scott and funded by the National Science Foundation (NSF), through the now-archived Mathematical and Physical Sciences Ascending Postdoctoral Research Fellowships (MPS-Ascend), as well as by the ACS PRF.
@acs.org

Dr. Julia @drdjulia.bsky.social · Jul 11

Our paper in Phys. Chem. Chem. Phys. @pccp.rsc.org with @runofthephill.bsky.social on MOF self-assembly simulations is online now, a.k.a. Lego® for MOFs.

We demonstrate the spontaneous assembly of rationally designed, coarse-grained, rigid-body models of 34 distinct MOF nets, ...

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Dr. Julia @drdjulia.bsky.social · Jul 11

... as well as the implementation of a hierarchical family of isoreticular compounds, layered compounds with tunable perpendicular interactions, and the assembly of "breathing-mode" compounds with free parameters.

doi.org/10.1039/D5CP...

A Coarse-Grained Simulation Toolkit for Metal–Organic Framework Synthesis

To gain a better understanding of the processes with which metal–organic frameworks (MOFs) self-assemble, we construct a coarse-grained simulation toolkit to model the growth of a wide variety of MOF ...

doi.org

Dr. Julia @drdjulia.bsky.social · Jul 11

Our paper in Phys. Chem. Chem. Phys. @pccp.rsc.org with @runofthephill.bsky.social on MOF self-assembly simulations is online now, a.k.a. Lego® for MOFs.

We demonstrate the spontaneous assembly of rationally designed, coarse-grained, rigid-body models of 34 distinct MOF nets, ...

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MOF Papers @mofpapers.bsky.social · Jul 7

A Coarse-Grained Simulation Toolkit for Metal–Organic Framework Synthesis https://dx.doi.org/10.26434/chemrxiv-2025-50s8j?rft_dat=source%3Ddrss

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Ella Mara Schmidt @ellamschmidt.bsky.social · Jun 3

We are looking for a motivated PhD student working on the project "Interplay of structure and dynamics in aluminum phosphate frameworks" in my group at Bremen University.
Application deadline is July 7th.
tinyurl.com/rt62tk6y

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Orit Peleg @oritpeleg.bsky.social · Jul 3

📣 We're on the lookout for a creative postdoc with strong computational skills!

Be the go-to person in the lab for building simple but powerful simulations that test wild ideas on biological rythems: from daily cycles of mussel groups at deep sea, to firefly flash synchronization!

More info below👇

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Max Planck Institute for Solid State Research @mpifkf.bsky.social · Jul 1

We are thrilled to welcome Prof. Raphaële Clément as the Director of our new Electrochemical Materials Department!! 🎉🔋 She’s a battery innovator using NMR magic to unlock greener energy. Welcome to the @maxplanck.de, Raphaële! Learn more at: www.fkf.mpg.de/8744352/2025...
📷 Photo credit: UCSB

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MIT Climate Project @mitclimateproject.bsky.social · May 22

Imagine a world without MIT. We'd be missing a lot.

www.youtube.com/watc...

Imagine a world without MIT

The Massachusetts Institute of Technology is an independent, coeducational, privately endowed university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Our mission is to advance knowledge; to educate students in science, engineering, technology, humanities and social sciences; and to tackle the most pressing problems

www.youtube.com

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David Bindel @dbindel.bsky.social · May 16

Because I have opened a BlueSky window and am procrastinating on reading final papers, let me also share what this spring has been like from my corner of the academic world.

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Randall Munroe @xkcd.com · Apr 25

PhD Timeline xkcd.com/3081

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Hakeem Jefferson @hakeemjefferson.bsky.social · Apr 23

A colleague at Stanford’s business school used The Stanford Daily to argue—poorly—against DEI. The piece was riddled with historical errors and left one searching for fact, so I broke my public writing hiatus to respond.

I hope you’ll read and share the piece.

stanforddaily.com/2025/04/22/w...

What DEI threatens isn’t merit. It’s monopoly.

Political science professor Hakeem Jefferson argues for DEI's importance to de-monopolizing universities.

stanforddaily.com

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Rachel Beatty Riedl @beattyriedl.bsky.social · Apr 19

This speaks to the real contributions international students and faculty make every day, and the real harm we are all facing : www.nytimes.com/2025/04/19/o...

Opinion | What Is Lost When We Scare Away Foreign Students

The immigration crackdown has come to America’s campuses.

www.nytimes.com

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Liam Knox @liamknox.bsky.social · Apr 10

As of this morning, we've tracked over 600 student visa revocations at more than 100 colleges.

That's double yesterday morning's count. Send updates to me or @amowreader.com and follow @insidehighered.com interactive visa map here: www.insidehighered.com/news/global/...

Where Students Have Had Their Visas Revoked

The Trump administration has quietly revoked hundreds of student visas across the country, wreaking havoc on the system.

www.insidehighered.com

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Ryan Quinn @ryanequinn.bsky.social · Apr 10

@liamknox.bsky.social: DHS "formalizing a policy to search the social media accounts of all foreign applicants for US visas or other benefits" per memo. ICE "will collect applicants’ social media handles and scour their accounts for any 'antisemitic activity'”

DHS Formalizes Policy Screening Noncitizens’ Social Media

The Department of Homeland Security is formalizing a policy to search the social media accounts of all foreign applicants for U.S. visas or other benefits, according to a memo issued Wednesday morning...

www.insidehighered.com

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The New York Times @nytimes.com · Apr 8

Breaking News: The Trump administration has frozen more than $1 billion in funding for Cornell University and $790 million for Northwestern, two officials said.

Trump Officials Freeze $1 Billion for Cornell and $790 Million for Northwestern

The funding pause amid civil rights investigations into both universities sharply escalates the Trump administration’s campaign against elite colleges.

www.nytimes.com

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