Lightnews — Scholar-powered news

Holly Dunsworth @dunsworth.bsky.social · 2d

Cell reception doesn't even work in the lecture hall where I need it to sign into the console 🫠

Reposted by Holly Dunsworth

KOJAMF🤘🖤🤘 @kojamf.bsky.social · 4d

Dr. Jane Goodall filmed an interview with Netflix in March 2025 that she understood would only be released after her death.

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Reposted by Holly Dunsworth

Laura Helmuth @laurahelmuth.bsky.social · 7d

Update on "Who Goes Nazi"
"MAGA appeals to people who need to feel special, who need enemies to blame, who need simple answers to complex problems. It attracts those who mistake confidence for competence, who confuse being loud with being right, who think that admitting uncertainty is weakness."

Mike Masnick @mmasnick.bsky.social · 7d

*cough*

www.techdirt.com/2025/07/08/w...

Who Goes MAGA?

With apologies to Dorothy Thompson, whose 1941 essay in Harper’s, “Who Goes Nazi?” remains a worthwhile read on the cultural archetypes of who is drawn to fascism, and who would never go down such …

www.techdirt.com

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Holly Dunsworth @dunsworth.bsky.social · 7d

He can’t or won’t compose himself around her. He’s grinning and looking away. He’s not taking her seriously as a colleague.

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Holly Dunsworth @dunsworth.bsky.social · 7d

—His body is vigorous. His mind is childish. His soul has been almost completely neglected.—

Popehat Agitates And Irritates @kenwhite.bsky.social · 7d

Every few months now I re-read this "Who Goes Nazi?" piece from 1941 and am blown away by how it captures the people we are dealing with 80 years later.

harpers.org/archive/1941...

Who Goes Nazi?, by Dorothy Thompson

harpers.org

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Reposted by Holly Dunsworth

Brendan Nyhan @brendannyhan.bsky.social · 7d

Trump's higher ed ransom note is here - everyone would have to acquiesce to their unprecedented demands or not be "given priority for grants," plus they can demand "reimbursement" for "violations" www.wsj.com/us-news/educ...

A mechanism to enforce fealty. An attack on academic freedom and democracy

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Holly Dunsworth @dunsworth.bsky.social · 8d

I love basketball but that was the best use of a basketball arena!

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Holly Dunsworth @dunsworth.bsky.social · 8d

What a life. What a loss. 💔
I'm just lucky I got to provision her, once. Yes, with bananas, but also chocolate.

NPR @npr.org · 8d

JUST IN: Jane Goodall, primatologist who transformed our understanding of the lives of apes, has died, according to an announcement from the Jane Goodall Institute.

Jane Goodall, legendary primatologist, has died at age 91

Jane Goodall, primatologist who transformed our understanding of the lives of apes, has died, according to an announcement from the Jane Goodall Institute.

n.pr

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Reposted by Holly Dunsworth

Roxane Gay @roxanegay.bsky.social · 9d

If any other president in all of history said the military should use American cities as a training ground he would be removed from office that same day. The hardest thing to tolerate in all this is how relatively silent elected democrats are. It’s ridiculous.

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Holly Dunsworth @dunsworth.bsky.social · 11d

That’s awesome-get ‘em!!
As for me, I’m still in it. Behind the scenes. On multiple fronts. 🫠
Truth is, I haven’t put up as good a fight as I could have. It’s just that I thought I wouldn’t have to 🤡🤣. I’ve got high voltage stuff in the pipeline so more fun is yet to come!

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Holly Dunsworth @dunsworth.bsky.social · 11d

I’m so lucky you saw this! I’ll shoot a response to the editor. It’s funny. I’ve never felt like doing that with any other paper that disagrees with mine (and there’s a pile!) but this one, with the blog post and my joke (which I wanted to be taken SERIOUSLY but not literally) is something else.

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Holly Dunsworth @dunsworth.bsky.social · 11d

Thanks

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Holly Dunsworth @dunsworth.bsky.social · 11d

And, finallly, have you ever named a perspective you take with a joke, only to have your name and your jokey blog post cited as the basis for a study in your field’s top specialized journal?

(And if they’re in on the joke with me, then why haven’t they reached out?)

It’s weird here.

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Holly Dunsworth @dunsworth.bsky.social · 12d

Here’s the paper with the so-called VAGGINA Hypothesis onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1...

Expanding the evolutionary explanations for sex differences in the human skeleton

While the anatomy and physiology of human reproduction differ between the sexes, the effects of hormones on skeletal growth do not. Human bone growth depends on estrogen. Greater estrogen produced by....

onlinelibrary.wiley.com

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Holly Dunsworth @dunsworth.bsky.social · 12d

I have only ever rarely recommended rejection over my career. Not even for an aquatic ape paper!

Anyway… am I wrong to think I maybe could have been invited to review?

And do I have to write a reply now????

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Holly Dunsworth @dunsworth.bsky.social · 12d

Their paper also takes some of my ideas to task in ways that either misunderstands them (my fault) or misrepresents them (theirs). I wasn’t asked to peer review it. I would have liked a chance.

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Holly Dunsworth @dunsworth.bsky.social · 12d

Their study omits the vagina in their test of VAGGINA, which is IRONIC considering the between-the-lines motivation was to actually talk about anything OTHER THAN BABIES being inside the pelvis.

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Holly Dunsworth @dunsworth.bsky.social · 12d

claims to have tested the VAGGINA hypothesis—a joke name that I gave a bunch of ideas and only mentioned it as a joke in the acknowledgments and a blog post about the paper: ecodevoevo.blogspot.com/2020/01/the-...

The VAGGINA hypothesis: Our vaginal, uterine, cervical, clitoral, urinary, rectal, and muscular dimensions of the pelvis, Ourselves.

Two months ago, I did a Twitter Poll. Link to tweet When you do polls, Twitter limits the number of choices to 4 and each one has stri...

ecodevoevo.blogspot.com

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Holly Dunsworth @dunsworth.bsky.social · 12d

In your field, if you wrote a sole-author paper that argued something. Would you expect to be asked to peer review a paper that argues against your paper? I ask bc this paper /n

onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1...

Empirical Test of the Relationship Between Pelvic Organs and Pelvic Cavity Dimensions as an Explanation for Female‐Biased Pelvic Sex Differences

Objectives Growing evidence obfuscates the role obstetrics is thought to have played in the evolution of female-biased pelvic dimorphism. An alternative explanation is offered by the “Virile, Active...

onlinelibrary.wiley.com

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Reposted by Holly Dunsworth

Rebecca Sear @rebeccasear.bsky.social · 12d

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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Reposted by Holly Dunsworth

Bethany Brookshire @beebrookshire.bsky.social · 13d

In reporting this piece on the new trial for a Huntington's treatment, I was struck by one thing in particular:

The joy.

One of my sources wept for joy. He has spent his entire career studying this disease, he said it was the happiest day. www.sciencenews.org/article/hunt...

Huntington's progression slowed by experimental gene therapy

An experimental gene therapy slowed Huntington’s by up to 75 percent in a small clinical trial. While not a cure, it may give patients longer lives.

www.sciencenews.org

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Reposted by Holly Dunsworth

Ethan White @ethanwhite.weecology.org · 13d

The influence of the NSF Graduate Research Fellowship Program really cannot be overstated. The fact that there is still no solicitation for this year is unfair to students and risks damaging the future of American science. Please take 30 seconds to sign the open letter to US STEM Leadership 🧪🌎

Jason Williams @jasonwilliamsny.bsky.social · 13d

Please share with anyone who cares about NSF support for graduate students and take 30 seconds to sign and leave a comment.

The deadline for the 2025 Graduate Research Fellowship Program is about one month away and literally no one can apply. #NSFGRFP

jasonjwilliamsny.github.io/grfp2025/

An Open Letter to U.S. STEM Leadership on the NSF Graduate Research Fellowship Program

jasonjwilliamsny.github.io

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Reposted by Holly Dunsworth

Jason Williams @jasonwilliamsny.bsky.social · 13d

Please share with anyone who cares about NSF support for graduate students and take 30 seconds to sign and leave a comment.

The deadline for the 2025 Graduate Research Fellowship Program is about one month away and literally no one can apply. #NSFGRFP

jasonjwilliamsny.github.io/grfp2025/

An Open Letter to U.S. STEM Leadership on the NSF Graduate Research Fellowship Program

jasonjwilliamsny.github.io

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Holly Dunsworth @dunsworth.bsky.social · 13d

Smallest man alive

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Reposted by Holly Dunsworth

Gil Durán @gilduran.com · 15d

2/ In 2001, Borsook said tech "libertarianism" reflected an adolescent mindset, with a craving for unchecked independence & resistance to constraint.

She warned that tech libertarians wanted an anti-human world that worked more like a computer. From "Cyberselfish," a book based on her 90s writing:

from cyberselfish by paulina borsook: It's an inability to reconcile the demands of being individual with
the demands of participating in society, which coincides beautifully
with a preference for, and glorification of, being the solo comman-
der of one's computer in lieu of any other economically viable be-
havior. Computers are so much more rule-based, controllable,
fixable, and comprehensible than any human will ever be. As many
political schools of thought do, these technolibertarians make a
philosophy out of a personality defect.

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