Lightnews — Scholar-powered news

Reposted by Jesse Czekanski-Moir

Adria LeBoeuf @adriatica.bsky.social · 3d

“The path to a better Amazon doesn’t lie through consumer activism, or appeals to the its conscience. Corporations, being artificial, immortal colony-organisms that use humans as their inconvenient gut flora, do not have consciences to appeal to.”

www.theguardian.com/technology/2...

Way past its prime: how did Amazon get so rubbish?

Sick of scrolling through junk results, AI-generated ads and links to lookalike products? The author and activist behind the term ‘enshittification’ explains what’s gone wrong with the internet – and ...

www.theguardian.com

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Holly Bik @hollybik.bsky.social · 8d

Click the link to peruse the full set of illustrations, these are all absolutely STUNNING - I now have new wall art goals for my office!

The Public Domain Review @publicdomainrev.bsky.social · 8d

Nudibranchs as pictured by a Japanese illustrator named Kumataro Ito, artist for the USS Albatross’ Philippine Expedition, 1907–10. More of his stunning images here: publicdomainreview.org/collection/k...

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Sofía Muñoz-Tobar @smunoztobar.bsky.social · 6d

Twenty two new species of beetles from Ecuador’s páramo and cloud forest offer a rare glimpse into ecosystems that remain largely unexplored. Species names pay tribute to sites, communities and cultural traits of the Ecuadorian Andes zookeys.pensoft.net/article/1583... #Biodiversity #Ecuador #bugs

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Dr. Elizabeth Santos @lizmillermacroevo.bsky.social · 6d

👀
www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...

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Caryn Vaughn @lovemussels.bsky.social · 6d

The Oklahoma Biological Survey at the University of Oklahoma is hiring a tenure-track freshwater ecologist. This is a great opportunity at a wonderful place to work. Please spread the word and encourage folks to apply: apply.interfolio.com/174472

Apply - Interfolio {{$ctrl.$state.data.pageTitle}} - Apply - Interfolio

apply.interfolio.com

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Michael Middlebrooks @secretsluglab.bsky.social · 6d

We're hiring a full time microbiology instructional staff position in the Biology at the University of Tampa. Apply if you are interested! utampa.wd1.myworkdayjobs.com/en-US/Staff/... #academicsky #microbiology #academicjobs

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Jannice Friedman @jannicefriedman.bsky.social · 6d

New paper by former MSc student @christeinecke.bsky.social! ⭐ A behemoth effort to apply artificial selection on clonal reproduction in #Mimulus guttatus. We show that clonality evolves quickly, but not symmetrically in both directions, and multivariate life history traits are altered too! 🧪🌾

bioRxiv Evolutionary Biology @biorxiv-evobio.bsky.social · 7d

Life-history evolution under artificial selection in a clonal plant https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2025.10.01.679824v1

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Jesse Czekanski-Moir @jessecm.bsky.social · 7d

how do we know which thing is happening? 🫠

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C. Brandon Ogbunu @cbo.bsky.social · 7d

When writing an article/book, you may experience the situation where you make a non-trivial change every time you look at it.

This means one of two things:

i) You're on the right track, so keep on editing (and presumably, improving) it.

ii) You should have submitted it a month ago (or longer).

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Sean A. S. Anderson 🍉 @seananderson.bsky.social · 9d

"Four years on, I see it clearly: the scientific system was never designed for equity. For people whose privilege stems from geography, institutional reputation and inherited networks, the system works perfectly the way it is. That’s why institutions focus only on improved access and optics."

Prof. Dr. Dolors Armenteras @darmenteras.bsky.social · 9d

I can’t promise this will be the last time I talk about inequity — or equity washing — in science. But after the multitude of responses to my Nature piece, I know something has shifted. Many came from the Global North. That alone feels like a small win. 👉 rdcu.be/eGEun

Equity in science is a beautiful lie — and I’m done pretending | Nature

Science isn’t really moving towards equity; institutions are just perfecting the appearance of equity. We need to build an alternative system. Science isn’t really moving towards equity; institutions are just perfecting the appearance of equity. We need to build an alternative system.

rdcu.be

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Alessio Capobianco @acapomorphic.bsky.social · 13d

I am extremely happy to see that our review on fossil tip-dating is out in early view in Systematic Biology! A huge thanks to all the authors of this massive project (@heckeberg.bsky.social, @basantakhakurel.bsky.social, Gustavo Darlim, and @hoehna.bsky.social)! academic.oup.com/sysbio/advan...

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Ryo Yamaguchi @r-yamaguchi.bsky.social · 13d

Here are my top picks:
Maynard Smith (1966) - Sympatric speciation
Felsenstein (1981) - How recombination impedes speciation
Fowler & Levin (1984) - Polyploid speciation

What other classics would you add?

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David Bapst @dwbapst.bsky.social · 13d

New from Sandy Carlson and co-authors... includes parsimony and Bayesian with FBD methods.

brachiopod.bsky.social @brachiopod.bsky.social · 13d

Our athyridide brachiopod paper has finally come out in Journal of Paleontology as FirstView! doi.org/10.1017/jpa..... Please let us know what you think!

Phylogeny of Athyridida (Brachiopoda): a comparison of methods of inference | Journal of Paleontology | Cambridge Core

Phylogeny of Athyridida (Brachiopoda): a comparison of methods of inference

doi.org

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Evolutionary Journal of the Linnean Society @evojlinnsoc.bsky.social · 13d

Why do some palm clades in Madagascar thrive while others stagnate? Why do some have 1 species, and others 180+? Turns out it's less about that Island Magic & more about inherited traits and timing (when is it not?)! 🌍🧪👇
doi.org/10.1093/evol...
@linneansociety.bsky.social

Explaining extreme differences in species richness among co-occurring palm clades in Madagascar

Abstract. Imbalance in species richness among related clades is a pervasive, yet incompletely understood feature of biodiversity. Comparison of species-poo

doi.org

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Annals of Botany @annbot.bsky.social · 13d

🎉 Good news! The paper ‘Persistence of Gondwanan woods in Myanmar through the Paleogene’ in @annbot.bsky.social by Nicolas Gentis and co-authors is now #free for 2 weeks 🧵(1/6)

👉 doi.org/p6mt

@nicolasgentis.bsky.social @alexislicht.bsky.social
@cr2p.bsky.social @mnhn.fr @cerege.bsky.social

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Rebecca R Helm @rebeccarhelm.bsky.social · 14d

I get that the news cycle is packed right now, but I just heard from a colleague at the Smithsonian that this is fully a GIANT SQUID BEING EATEN BY A SPERM WHALE and it’s possibly the first ever confirmed video according to a friend at NOAA

10 YEAR OLD ME IS LOSING HER MIND (a thread 🧵)

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Brian J. Enquist @bjenquist.bsky.social · 14d

Biodiversity modulates the cross-community scaling relationship in changing environments #allometry #scaling 🌐🧪 onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1...

Biodiversity modulates the cross‐community scaling relationship in changing environments

Organismal abundance typically declines with increasing body size, with metabolic theory predicting a universal size–abundance slope of –0.75. Using protist microcosms across gradients of species ric...

onlinelibrary.wiley.com

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Dr. Ivan Magalhaes @6eyes8legs.bsky.social · 14d

Monjaraz-Ruedas et al. on genetic diversity of several mygalomorph species. Body size and ecological niche do not predict genetic diversity or structure, because ALL species are highly structured and isolated by distance. Mygals don't like moving...

onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/...

Graph showing that different mygalomorph species all have high FST values, irrespective of their size and type of ecology.

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Floria Mora-Kepfer Uy @avispatica.bsky.social · 14d

Our podcast is out! Check out our research @urochester.bsky.social that is decoding how true biohackers called twisted-winged insects control social wasps! #teamwasp #strepsiptera #zombiewasps 🐝🧟‍♀️ Please check out this fantastic initiative by @bugsneedheroes.bsky.social. Thank you for having me!

Bugs Need Heroes Podcast @bugsneedheroes.bsky.social · 14d

This episode Amanda and Kelly discuss twisted-wing insects (Strepsiptera) with Dr Floria Mora-Kepfer Uy an assistant professor at the University of Rochester and a Levinson/Shapiro faculty scholar. @avispatica.bsky.social

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Uli Westphal @uliwestphal.bsky.social · Feb 23

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Jesse Czekanski-Moir @jessecm.bsky.social · 14d

unrelated to the elephants, I'm just realizing that the screenshot reveals that according to the duckduckgo mobile browser I have "∞" tabs open, giving bluesky more of a glimpse into my psyche than I'd originally intended

small portion of a phone screenshot showing the infinity symbol as the count of how many tabs I have open on my phone in the duckduckgo mobile browser

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Jesse Czekanski-Moir @jessecm.bsky.social · 14d

this is very fun. check out the convergent evolution with Haidomyrmex

depictions of elephants from European texts between the 1200s and 1400s, including one that has its tusks turned upwards in a way that reminds me of the mandibles of the extinct ant genus Haidomyrmex

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James McInerney @jomcinerney.bsky.social · 14d

This is just amazing. I'm flabbergasted. I have lectured about Huntington's for years. I first heard about it as a student 30+ years ago. I never thought we would see progress like this. Science works!! www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...

Huntington's disease successfully treated for first time

One of the most devastating diseases finally has a treatment that can slow its progression and transform lives, tearful doctors tell BBC.

www.bbc.co.uk

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Dr Craig R McClain @drcraigmc.bsky.social · 15d

🌊🔬 Grad Student Opportunity!
I’m recruiting PhD students to explore marine biodiversity, body size, and bioenergetics with flexibility to design your own project! PDF of ad link below.
#PhDPosition #MarineBiology #Macroecology #Biodiversity #GradSchool #Ecology #OceanScience tinyurl.com/5n9434wk

Dropbox

tinyurl.com

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Ashwini V. Mohan ಅಶ್ವಿನಿ 🧬 🙋🏾‍♀️ @crazychipkali.bsky.social · 15d

Using gene-order information to infer phylogenetic relationship seems super interesting. Yet to read!

Dan MacGuigan @dmacguig.bsky.social · 16d

Check out our new preprint! We compare sequence versus synteny approaches for resolving a challenging #phylogenetic problem. In this case, synteny is far more informative! Also includes the first chromosome-level #genome for the enigmatic #fish family Gyrinocheilidae. doi.org/10.1101/2025...

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