Lightnews — Scholar-powered news

Gal Haspel @galhaspel.bsky.social · 14d

Eve Marder on memories, scientific excellence, rugs, and fading.
elifesciences.org/articles/109...

Insightful as always.

Living Science: My grandmother’s rug

The objects that migrants carry with them are tethers to the lives they have left behind.

elifesciences.org

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Gal Haspel @galhaspel.bsky.social · Aug 15

Finally, a fun collaboration published in Optica:

opg.optica.org/optica/fullt...

Fun times at the @mblscience.bsky.social , playing with optical toys with @edhirata.bsky.social and others :)

Optica Publishing Group

opg.optica.org

Reposted by Gal Haspel

FlyBase @flybase.bsky.social · Aug 15

FlyBase needs your help! We ask that European labs continue to contribute to Cambridge, UK FlyBase, whereas US and other non-European labs can contribute to US FlyBase. For more information and how to donate: wiki.flybase.org/wiki/FlyBase...

FlyBase:Contribute to FlyBase - FlyBase Wiki

wiki.flybase.org

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Gal Haspel @galhaspel.bsky.social · Jul 6

Any academics in #Paris need a housesitter for any time frame in July-August?
I can connect you to a young and trustworthy scientist who plans to be there then.
DM for details

Gal Haspel @galhaspel.bsky.social · Jun 28

The link expired :(
Can you update the invitation or give a direct link (or doi)?

Reposted by Gal Haspel

Michelle Goldberg @michellegoldberg.bsky.social · May 30

www.nytimes.com/2025/05/30/o...

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Reposted by Gal Haspel

Victor Ray @victorerikray.bsky.social · May 30

"Brooke Nichols, an associate professor of global health at Boston University, has estimated that these cuts have already resulted in about 300,000 deaths, most of them of children, and will most likely lead to significantly more by the end of the year."

Opinion | Elon Musk’s Legacy Is Disease, Starvation and Death

www.nytimes.com

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Reposted by Gal Haspel

Ed Boyden @eboyden3.bsky.social · May 30

Just published, expansion in situ genome sequencing, where you can sequence DNA while still inside the cell, mapping its organization relative to proteins and other markers, with the help of expansion microscopy! Led by @jbuenrostro.bksy.social. www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...

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Gal Haspel @galhaspel.bsky.social · May 30

If you like short stories and live now, the first story, Mobilization, is fun and distopic:
pca.st/episode/ee5e...

Web Player - Pocket Casts

Listen to your favorite podcasts online, in your browser. Discover the world's most powerful podcast player.

pca.st

Gal Haspel @galhaspel.bsky.social · May 26

Eve Marder on the @nightsciencepod.bsky.social , talking about choosing your level of ambiguity and doing interesting science solving puzzles.

pca.st/episode/f5fe...

Web Player - Pocket Casts

Listen to your favorite podcasts online, in your browser. Discover the world's most powerful podcast player.

pca.st

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Gal Haspel @galhaspel.bsky.social · May 25

Don't panic and happy towel day to all

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Gal Haspel @galhaspel.bsky.social · May 16

Save NSF
www.savensf.com/nsf-at-75-to...

NSF at 75 Toolkit | Save NSF

www.savensf.com

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Gal Haspel @galhaspel.bsky.social · May 12

It's national limerick day
Again
I prefer haikus

Gal Haspel @galhaspel.bsky.social · Apr 8

At last, someone is monitoring all the unofficial collections of downloadable books and papers (scihub, libgen, etc). So we know where not to go to not get them. Don't tell no one:
open-slum.org

SLUM: The Shadow Library Uptime Monitor

This dashboard tracks the availability of popular shadow libraries in real time from a US-based server.[Click here to learn more](https://open-slum.org/sta

open-slum.org

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Reposted by Gal Haspel

Scott Delaney @scott-delaney.bsky.social · Mar 31

The latest NIH grant chaos:

NIH apparently sent stop-work orders to all *97* MARC and U-RISE programs in the country.

These programs support underrepresented undergrads interested in health research careers.

MARC dates to 1977. Over 48 years, the programs have supported thousands of students.

Scott Delaney @scott-delaney.bsky.social · Mar 28

New this evening (3/28): Major update in NIH grant termination numbers.

❌ 695 NIH grants now terminated (up from 429)
❌ 232 on HIV/AIDS
❌ 44 on cancer
❌ 28 on Alzheimer's
❌ 123 on Covid*

*And this doesn't count cancelled non-NIH Covid grants.

HUGE THANKS to @noamross.net for pushing the updates!

Airtable | Everyone's app platform

Airtable is a low-code platform for building collaborative apps. Customize your workflow, collaborate, and achieve ambitious outcomes. Get started for free.

airtable.com

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Gal Haspel @galhaspel.bsky.social · Apr 6

Elegant stuff!

Piali Sengupta @senguptalab.bsky.social · Apr 3

Convo at faculty meeting led to my getting Eve Marder interested in worms!

Check out our collaborative theory paper providing an explanation for how the unusual properties of the EXP-2 K+ channel could maintain robustness of pharyngeal pumping to environmental noise.
www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/...

An unusual potassium conductance protects Caenorhabditis elegans pharyngeal muscle rhythms against environmental noise | PNAS

The nematode Caenorhabditis elegans feeds by rhythmic contraction and relaxation of a neuromuscular organ called the pharynx, which draws in and fi...

www.pnas.org

Reposted by Gal Haspel

Anne C. Hart @ach-ceneuro.bsky.social · Mar 31

Faculty across the country are watching. Will Harvard step forward, as the leader they claim to be— and fight back? Capitulation may doom us all… www.ed.gov/about/news/p...

ED, HHS, and GSA Initiate Federal Contract and Grant Review of Harvard University

www.ed.gov

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Gal Haspel @galhaspel.bsky.social · Mar 28

@theuniverse.bsky.social

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Gal Haspel @galhaspel.bsky.social · Mar 28

Fun with worms on @WIRED
www.wired.com/story/openwo...
We've been thinking about how #celegans can revolutionize science again, together with @kordinglab.bsky.social @eboyden3.bsky.social @wormsense.bsky.social and many other (also find our preprint on #arXiv)

The Worm That No Computer Scientist Can Crack

One of the simplest, most over-studied organisms in the world is the C. elegans nematode. For 13 years, a project called OpenWorm has tried—and utterly failed—to simulate it.

www.wired.com

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Gal Haspel @galhaspel.bsky.social · Mar 16

Professor Brian Cox and Jeff Wayne present
'Life on Mars'
YouTube Streamed Event about the legendary War of the worlds
www.youtube.com/@twotwoffici...

Jeff Wayne's Musical Version of The War of the Worlds

The official youtube channel for Jeff Wayne's Musical Version of The War of The Worlds. #TheEveOfTheWar is coming... http://theeveofthewar.tumblr.com @TheEveOfTheWar https://twitter.com/TheEveOfTheW...

www.youtube.com

Reposted by Gal Haspel

Christophe 🔬 L @christlet.bsky.social · Mar 11

A microscopic poem by Jacques Roubaud, who left us last December

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Reposted by Gal Haspel

Marc Somssich @somssich.bsky.social · May 20

Do you know who Douglas Prasher is? Many don't, even though he is the person who cloned the original #GFP gene in the late 1980s. In my short history of plant light #microscopy I also cover a bit of his story - & why he is relatively unknown today, despite the importance of his work. See this 🧵👇

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Reposted by Gal Haspel

Konrad Kording @kordinglab.bsky.social · Feb 5

I know this site only reaches a subset of neuro/ cog professors. If you know a young professor in the area who would benefit from a week of targeted learning about doing good science, good mentoring, networking etc, it would be great if you could forward them: compneurosci.com/Neuro4Pros/i...

Neuro4Pros summer school

NeUroscience Computational LEAdership Retreat (NUCLEAR): happiness and success

compneurosci.com

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Gal Haspel @galhaspel.bsky.social · Mar 10

ExM FTW!
I'm very proud of our involvement adapting it to use in #Celegans . It only got better and easier to use since Yu et al 2020 ExCel paper

Ed Boyden @eboyden3.bsky.social · Mar 10

The MIT McGovern Institute’s story celebrating the 10th birthday of expansion microscopy (ExM). One highlight: ExM is not only easy to do, it’s easy to modify - so lots of people are altering and applying ExM for custom purposes, leading to unexpected innovations: mcgovern.mit.edu/2025/03/03/t...

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Reposted by Gal Haspel

Piali Sengupta @senguptalab.bsky.social · Mar 10

Even in the 'good' days, students/PDs on visas were always worried that they would run afoul of the law and be asked to leave. I know - I was on a student visa myself. I can't even begin to imagine their fear and anxiety now. Time for all university leaders to collectively step up and speak out!!

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