Lightnews — Scholar-powered news

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Carl Zimmer @carlzimmer.com · 12h

Today my @nytimes.com colleagues and I are launching a new series called Lost Science. We interview US scientists who can no longer discover something new about our world, thanks to this year‘s cuts. Here is my first interview with a scientist who studied bees and fires. Gift link: nyti.ms/3IWXbiE

nyti.ms

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Mark Z. Jacobson @mzjacobson.bsky.social · 18h

Impressive. 5 more days straight with 100% WindWaterSolar on California ISO grid, making it 193 of 280 days in 2025

Gas down 18% v '24 & 37% v '23, replaced largely by solar & batteries

54.7% of all demand met by WWS

Demand down 1.7% v '24 & 1.1% v '23 due largely to growth of roof PV

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Governor JB Pritzker @govpritzker.illinois.gov · 21h

I will not back down.

Trump is now calling for the arrest of elected representatives checking his power.

What else is left on the path to full-blown authoritarianism?

Donald Trump Truth Social Post: Chicago Mayor should be in jail for failing to protect Ice Officers! Governor Pritzker also.

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Mike Feigin 🥯 @mikefeigin.bsky.social · 22h

“Could?” Let me be clear. A $100,000 H1B will kill our ability to do world class science in the US.

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Ishmail Abdus-Saboor @ishmailsaboor.bsky.social · 21h

Congrats to the winners! Its notable that Omar Yaghi was a refugee. Refugees and immigrants once again making American science great!

Nature @nature.com · 1d

BREAKING: The Nobel Prize in Chemistry has been awarded to Susumu Kitagawa, Richard Robson and Omar M. Yaghi “for the development of metal-organic frameworks”

Stay tuned for more.
#NobelPrize

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Prasad Jallepalli, MD, PhD @prasad.bsky.social · 1d

grateful to hear him say this out loud — too few institutions have this decency and courage

AFP News Agency @en.afp.com · 1d

"It is going to be disastrous if this continues"

Nobel Prize physics laureate John Clarke says Trump cuts will 'cripple' US scientific research

u.afp.com/SmAy

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Jack Jenkins @jackjenkins.me · 1d

Gonna be thinking about this lede for a minute.

(RNS) — Last month, the Rev. David Black stood in front of a Chicago-area U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement facility and spread his arms wide. Adorned in all black and wearing a clerical collar, the pastor looked up at a group of masked, heavily armed ICE agents on the roof and began to pray.

“I invited them to repentance,” Black, a minister in the Presbyterian Church (USA), said in an interview. “I basically offered an altar call. I invited them to come and receive that salvation, and be part of the kingdom that is coming.”

But when Black began to lower his arms a few seconds later, the agents responded to his spiritual plea by firing pepper balls, or chemical agents that cause eye irritation and respiratory distress, video footage shows. One struck Black in the head, exploding into a puff of white pepper smoke and forcing him to his knees. Fellow demonstrators rushed to his aid, and as the pastor rubbed his face in pain, the agents continued to fire.

“We could hear them laughing,” Black said.

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Melanie D’Arrigo @darrigomelanie.bsky.social · 1d

I feel like this photo of masked, armed men pepper spraying a pastor protecting his community is going to be a defining picture of this moment in America for a long, long time.

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Don Moynihan @donmoyn.bsky.social · 1d

About 1 in 3 US Nobel prize winners are immigrants.
About 1 in 4 were government employees at some point.
About 44% of all Nobel prize winners were educated in US higher education.
As Trump demands a Nobel prize, he is destroying the means by which America came to dominate the prizes.

Sources below

Boston Tom Levenson @tomlevenson.bsky.social · 1d

Two things of note in today's announcement of the 2025 Nobel physics prize (besides the work being honored).

1: The US institutional dominance of the prize continues.
2: 2 of the three laureates are immigrants, drawn here decades ago by the then-unmatched opportunities for science here...

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Nobel Prize in Physics Is Awarded for Work in Quantum Mechanics

www.nytimes.com

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Mark Z. Jacobson @mzjacobson.bsky.social · 2d

New record battery output of 47.2 GWh on the California ISO grid on Sun 10/5/25. 9.2% of all demand was met by batteries.

Now 191 days of 2025 with > 100% WWS for part of day.

Gas is down 18% v '24, 37% v '23
Solar up 15% v '24, 45% v '23
Demand down 1.7% v' 24, 1% v '23 despite more AI

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Brendan Cantwell @cantb.bsky.social · 1d

The AAUP and other labor groups sue the administration over its plan to charge $100,000 for every new H-1B. The AAU is not party to the suit, even though though its members among the largest employers of foreign academics. We’re seeing which groups are willing to let others take the heat.

Higher ed groups sue over Trump administration’s $100K H-1B visa fee

The surprise policy rolled out last month could cause “catastrophic setbacks” to research in the U.S., the lawsuit alleges.

www.highereddive.com

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Robert Reich @rbreich.bsky.social · 2d

Everything Trump is doing now is a preamble for his regime's real goal: to invoke the Insurrection Act.

I don’t want to unduly alarm you, but you need to be aware of this imminent danger. It’s unfolding very rapidly. https://robertreich.substack.com/p/trumps-plan

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Marc Elias @marcelias.bsky.social · 2d

🚨BREAKING: Illinois filed a lawsuit Monday to block President Donald Trump’s attempt to send hundreds of Texas National Guard troops in Chicago, saying the deployment infringes on the state’s “sovereignty and right to self-governance.” www.democracydocket.com/news-alerts/...

Illinois Sues to Block Trump’s Deployment of Texas National Guard in Chicago

Read more here.

www.democracydocket.com

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Ian L Morgan @ianlmorgan.bsky.social · 2d

This is a great op-ed by Dr. Stanley about the effects of anti-science politicized attacks on "gain-of-function" research. Much of this research poses little risk and has huge benefits for people across the globe. If your research has been affected, please consider writing an op-ed like Dr. Stanley.

The NIH ordered me to stop my ‘dangerous’ gain-of-function research. It isn’t dangerous at all

Safe gain-of-function research is necessary to identify new treatments for diseases like for tuberculosis — but the NIH has imposed unfounded stops.

www.statnews.com

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Alex Crits-Christoph @acritschristoph.bsky.social · 2d

For a week now the harbor has been bright green and half of Baltimore has smelled like rotten eggs.

Most likely, this is a Chlorobi bloom!

Chlorobi are anoxygenic photosynthetic green sulfur bacteria brought up from the bottom of the harbor by warm waters aqua.org/stories/2023...

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Acyn @acyn.bsky.social · 3d

Bonta: Just minutes before the hearing, we got word that the Texas National Guard has been federalized.

We asked the judge to issue a broad order — one that applies to every National Guard unit in every state — stating that none of them can be deployed to Oregon.

She issued that order

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The Daum Lab @daumlab.bsky.social · 3d

Out in Science Advances: Our #cryoEM structure of HFTV1, a virus infecting the halophile #archaea. *First full atomic structure (containing all structural proteins) of any tailed virus!* Congrats and thanks to all co-authors and our fantastic collaborators! www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...

Cryo-EM resolves the structure of the archaeal dsDNA virus HFTV1 from head to tail

This structure of an archaeal tailed virus (arTV) provides detailed insights into arTV assembly and infection mechanisms.

www.science.org

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Senator Ron Wyden @wyden.senate.gov · 3d

It was a beautiful Sunday in Portland. Farmer’s markets, the Portland Marathon, peaceful protests, and some views of Mt. Hood. This city is vibrant, peaceful, and resilient. We do not need a federal occupation, and we sure as hell don’t want one.

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Jamie Cate @jhdcate.bsky.social · 3d

Remember these grievances from the Declaration of Independence:

“He has kept among us, in times of peace, Standing Armies without the Consent of our legislatures.

He has affected to render the Military independent of and superior to the Civil power.”

AG Rob Bonta @agrobbonta.oag.ca.gov · 3d

Breaking: we’ve secured a court order BLOCKING Trump’s unlawful deployment of the California National Guard in Portland.

This fight isn’t over, but today’s rebuke of the President’s illegal actions is a step in the right direction.

The National Guard is not President Trump’s personal police force.

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AG Rob Bonta @agrobbonta.oag.ca.gov · 3d

Breaking: we’ve secured a court order BLOCKING Trump’s unlawful deployment of the California National Guard in Portland.

This fight isn’t over, but today’s rebuke of the President’s illegal actions is a step in the right direction.

The National Guard is not President Trump’s personal police force.

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Anna Bower @annabower.bsky.social · 3d

HAPPENING NOW: Emergency hearing before Judge Karin Immergut on Trump's effort to circumvent her temporary restraining order re: Oregon national guard deployment.

I plan to listen in for @lawfaremedia.org.

Follow along (court remote access technology permitting...) ⬇️🧵

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Governor JB Pritzker @govpritzker.illinois.gov · 3d

This evening, President Trump is ordering 400 members of the Texas National Guard for deployments to Illinois, Oregon, and other locations within the United States. No officials from the federal government called me directly to discuss or coordinate.

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Timothy Snyder @timothysnyder.bsky.social · 3d

This is what freedom of speech sounds like. Also, please consider subscribing to the Philadelphia Inquirer.
www.inquirer.com/opinion/trum...

Why we can’t allow Trump to ban that other f-word | Will Bunch

The column the Trump regime wants to ban: America has to call out surging fascism in order to defeat it.

www.inquirer.com

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Adam Kinzinger @adamkinzinger.substack.com · 3d

The thing that makes me the sickest is that these folks don’t even have a shred of compassion. It’s one thing to enforce laws and rules. It’s another to do it gleefully and celebrate the suffering of someone born into poverty and desperation

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Governor Gavin Newsom @governor.ca.gov · 3d

The public cannot stay silent in the face of such reckless and authoritarian conduct by the President of the United States.

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