Lightnews — Scholar-powered news

Reposted by Hannah Waters

Asher Hellbein @asherelbein.bsky.social · 6d

New on Heat Death! I caught up with folklorist and historian Adrienne Mayor to talk about her new compendium of “geomythology,” the warnings encoded in folklore, and the oral tradition of the future. Super fun conversation.

Science Before Science with Adrienne Mayor

Historian of science Adrienne Mayor on how fossils become folklore and how stories can save your life.

heat-death.ghost.io

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Reposted by Hannah Waters

Samantha Maldonado @smaldo.bsky.social · 5d

NEW: A buyout program is coming for homeowners in The Hole, a NYC neighborhood unlike any other.

It’s the first time the city pursues this climate adaptation strategy proactively, instead of after a disaster, and with a focus on inland (not coastal) flooding.

www.thecity.nyc/2025/10/03/f...

They Live Below Sea Level in NYC. Now, the City Could Buy Out 'The Hole'

The low-lying neighborhood on the Brooklyn-Queens border will be the first place in New York where officials may buy properties proactively — instead of in response to a disaster.

www.thecity.nyc

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Reposted by Hannah Waters

ACLU @aclu.org · 5d

BREAKING: Our client Mario Guevara, an Emmy-winning journalist detained by ICE in retaliation for livestreaming law enforcement activity, will be deported tomorrow to El Salvador.

Mario and his family are being punished for his reporting. This cruelty is meant to stifle our free press.

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Hannah Waters @hanner.bsky.social · 8d

Great interview. I can hear it in all your voices!

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Candy McSlashin’ @amcglashen.bsky.social · 8d

It sure was fun speaking with Owen and Quentin Reiser about “Listers,” the most entertaining birding media I’ve encountered. www.audubon.org/magazine/get...

Get to Know the Brothers Behind the Buzziest Birding Film in Years

Owen and Quentin Reiser take us behind the scenes of “Listers” and preview their next project.

www.audubon.org

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Reposted by Hannah Waters

The Uproot Project @uprootproject.bsky.social · 9d

🚨📢JOB ALERT📢🚨 @seattletimes.com is hiring a Climate Reporter to cover the connections between climate change and the region’s biggest and most influential businesses. seattletimes.applytojob.com/apply/apstHy...

Climate Reporter - The Seattle Times - Career Page

We’re seeking a versatile Climate Reporter to deliver breaking news, in-depth enterprise and powerful narratives on climate change

seattletimes.applytojob.com

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Hannah Waters @hanner.bsky.social · 9d

Now at Wired - @dsamorod.bsky.social’s Quanta explainer on thirst

WIRED @wired.com · 10d

The effects of insufficient water are felt by every cell in the body, but it’s the brain that manifests our experience of thirst. www.wired.com/story/what-d...

What Is Thirst?

The effects of insufficient water are felt by every cell in the body, but it’s the brain that manifests our experience of thirst.

www.wired.com

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Hannah Waters @hanner.bsky.social · 9d

wow: "evidence of an illegal plot already in motion ... [OMB] has been directing NASA—since early summer—to begin implementing the devastating cuts demanded in President Trump's proposed budget for FY26, in clear violation of the Constitution"

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Reposted by Hannah Waters

Alexandra Witze @alexwitze.bsky.social · 9d

A leading Democrat in the Senate just released an important report documenting how NASA has been working to implement the president's proposed budget, not Congressionally approved funds, in slashing missions. Read more ⬇️

SpacePolicyOnline @spacepolicyonline.bsky.social · 9d

Sen. Maria Cantwell (D-WA), top Democrat on Senate Commerce Cmte, is out with a Democratic staff report: "The Destruction of NASA's Mission: Whistleblowers Reveal OMB's Unconstitutional Plot to Gut the Agency."
www.commerce.senate.gov/services/fil...

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Reposted by Hannah Waters

John Paul Helveston @jhelvy.bsky.social · 9d

U.S. Dept. of Energy Office of
Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy banned from using words like "climate change" or "emissions"...you know, phrases that have nothing to do with things like energy efficiency or renewable energy 🤦‍♂️

www.politico.com/news/2025/09...

Energy Dept. adds ‘climate change’ and ‘emissions’ to banned words list

It is the latest in a series of Trump administration efforts to dispute, silence or downplay climate change.

www.politico.com

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Reposted by Hannah Waters

Scott Horton @robertscotthorton.bsky.social · 10d

George Monbiot: "Israel’s ecocide in Gaza sends this message: even if we stopped dropping bombs, you couldn’t live here. Consider the annihilation of agricultural land alongside the genocide – and grasp the chilling totality of this attempt to eliminate all life" www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...

Israel’s ecocide in Gaza sends this message: even if we stopped dropping bombs, you couldn’t live here | George Monbiot

Consider the annihilation of agricultural land alongside the genocide – and grasp the chilling totality of this attempt to eliminate all life, says Guardian columnist George Monbiot

www.theguardian.com

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Reposted by Hannah Waters

Ben Neely @benneely.com · 12d

For some reading, or just an exploration of exemplary science communication, check out the @quantamagazine.bsky.social series "How We Came to Know Earth" and its presentation. Really really good stuff.

www.quantamagazine.org/how-we-came-...

How We Came To Know Earth | Quanta Magazine

Climate science is the most significant scientific collaboration in history. This series from Quanta Magazine guides you through basic climate science — from quantum effects to ancient hothouses, from...

www.quantamagazine.org

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Reposted by Hannah Waters

Seth Cotlar @sethcotlar.bsky.social · 10d

He truly is Chance the Gardener from Being There. www.kgw.com/article/news...

"I spoke to the governor, she was very nice," Trump said. "But I said, 'Well wait a minute, am I watching things on television that are different from what's happening? My people tell me different! They are literally attacking and there are fires all over the place...it looks like terrible."

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Scott Horton @robertscotthorton.bsky.social · 11d

More than 1800 detainees who were interned in Trump's shuttered Alligator Alcatraz concentration camp have now disappeared without a trace. Their families and lawyers can’t find them and they’ve vanished from the ICE database. www.miamiherald.com/news/local/i...

Hundreds of Alligator Alcatraz detainees drop off the grid after leaving site

As of the end of August, the whereabouts of two-thirds of more than 1,800 men detained at Alligator Alcatraz during the month of July could not be determined by the Miami Herald.

www.miamiherald.com

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Reposted by Hannah Waters

Christopher Mims @mims.bsky.social · 12d

*The AI boom = one of the costliest building sprees in world history

* Past 3 years' commitments are greater than the cost of building the U.S. interstate highway system

* Consumers must spend $800 billion on AI within a few years, to justify investment from 2023-24

www.wsj.com/tech/ai/ai-b...

This week, consultants at Bain & Co. estimated the wave of AI infrastructure spending will require $2 trillion in annual AI revenue by 2030. By comparison, that is more than the combined 2024 revenue of Amazon, Apple, Alphabet, Microsoft, Meta and Nvidia, and more than five times the size of the entire global subscription software market.

Morgan Stanley estimates that last year there was around $45 billion of revenue for AI products. The sector makes money from a combination of subscription fees for chatbots such as ChatGPT and money paid to use these companies’ data centers.

How the tech sector will cover the gap is “the trillion dollar question,” said Mark Moerdler, an analyst at Bernstein.

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Hannah Waters @hanner.bsky.social · 12d

Love this evolutionary perspective on how AI learning and training works in this interview with Naomi Saphra @nsaphra.bsky.social by Ben Brubaker @benbenbrubaker.bsky.social

www.quantamagazine.org/to-understan...

To Understand AI, Watch How It Evolves | Quanta Magazine

Naomi Saphra thinks that most research into language models focuses too much on the finished product. She’s mining the history of their training for insights into why these systems work the way they d...

www.quantamagazine.org

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Hannah Waters @hanner.bsky.social · 12d

phew, finally got all the stories posted! thank you for reading folks. feel free to send me feedback [email protected]

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Hannah Waters @hanner.bsky.social · 12d

An essay explores how two things can be true at once: The climate system is impossibly chaotic and climate change is simply true. By Joseph Howlett

www.quantamagazine.org/the-climate-...

The Climate Change Paradox | Quanta Magazine

Earth’s climate is chaotic and volatile. Climate change is simple and predictable. How can both be true?

www.quantamagazine.org

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Hannah Waters @hanner.bsky.social · 12d

A news story shares the latest findings from research probing whether Venus — a hothouse planet with a runaway greenhouse effect — could be a future version of Earth. By Robin George Andrews @squigglyvolcano.bsky.social

www.quantamagazine.org/why-is-venus...

Why Is Venus Hell and Earth an Eden? | Quanta Magazine

A team of scientists has investigated how Earth’s twin became so inhospitable, and whether the same will happen to our planet.

www.quantamagazine.org

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Hannah Waters @hanner.bsky.social · 12d

An animated infographic explains the quantum dynamics that allow relatively few greenhouse gas molecules to warm an entire planet. By Mark Belan and Joseph Howlett @markabelan.bsky.social

www.quantamagazine.org/the-quantum-...

The Quantum Mechanics of Greenhouse Gases | Quanta Magazine

Earth’s radiation can send some molecules spinning or vibrating, which is what makes them greenhouse gases. This infographic explains how relatively few heat-trapping molecules can have a planetary ef...

www.quantamagazine.org

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Hannah Waters @hanner.bsky.social · 12d

Photography from expeditions to the farthest ends of the Earth showcase climate scientists’ adventurous effort to collect data for climate models. By Yasemin Saplakoglu @yaseminsaplakoglu.bsky.social

www.quantamagazine.org/photos-captu...

Photos Capture the Extreme, Beautiful Work of Climate Science | Quanta Magazine

Building an accurate model of Earth’s climate requires a lot of data. Photography reveals the extreme efforts scientists have undertaken to measure gases, glaciers, clouds and more.

www.quantamagazine.org

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Hannah Waters @hanner.bsky.social · 12d

A package of short stories from climate microbiology explore how microscopic organisms shape the climate — and how we can work with them to address climate change. By Katherine Bourzac @bourzac.bsky.social

www.quantamagazine.org/microbes-als...

Microbes Also Change the Climate. Could That Help Us? | Quanta Magazine

A collection of short dispatches from the field of climate microbiology conveys the contributions that single-celled life forms make to our climate system, and how we can work with them to address cli...

www.quantamagazine.org

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Reposted by Hannah Waters

Arielle Tannenbaum @arielletannenbaum.bsky.social · 13d

Folks! We're hiring a Social Media and Digital Content Creator @climatecentral.org — a great role for someone early in their career, with a passion for climate comms and experience creating visual/video content across platforms.

Please spread the word! www.climatecentral.org/open-positio...

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Reposted by Hannah Waters

divine beastmode @gunstreet.bsky.social · 12d

the post office is a public service. it doesn’t need to make money. public transit doesn’t need to make money. the library doesn’t need to make money. some things exist for the public good and we desperately need lawmakers to stop thinking about them in terms of capitalism. these are not businesses.

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Kate Elliott @kateelliottsff.bsky.social · 12d

This is excellent, peeps. Well worth your time (and you can sip it in parts, no need to read all at once)

Hannah Waters @hanner.bsky.social · 13d

Hii! Last week Quanta published a project I've been working on all year — a special issue about climate science, or what research into climate change is revealing about how our planet works www.quantamagazine.org/how-we-came-...

How We Came To Know Earth | Quanta Magazine

Climate science is the most significant scientific collaboration in history. This series from Quanta Magazine guides you through basic climate science — from quantum effects to ancient hothouses, from...

www.quantamagazine.org

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