Lightnews — Scholar-powered news

Josh Kellogg @kelloggnpgroup.bsky.social · 8d

A great conference with diverse sessions on #medicinal #plants, #secmet, #plantbiology, #ethnobotany, and more! Check it out!

American Council for Medicinally Active Plants @acmap.bsky.social · 8d

Registration is now open for the 2026 ACMAP Annual Conference, to be held June 15-17 in Hershey, PA! Come join us for some sweet science on all aspects of medicinal plant research!
Travel awards are available for students and postdocs!
For more information, see:
acmap.org/conference/

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Josh Kellogg @kelloggnpgroup.bsky.social · 14d

#secmet
#massspecsky
#ethnobotany
#chemsky

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Josh Kellogg @kelloggnpgroup.bsky.social · 14d

An 1889 paper reported ghost pipe (Monotroa uniflora) contains grayanotoxin, but our @savannahanez.bsky.social
revisited this claim, using #massspec approaches to try and detect the toxins. Spoiler alert, we were unable to find any! Her work is now available in JNP!

pubs.acs.org/doi/full/10....

Targeted and Untargeted Mass Spectrometry Do Not Detect Grayanane-Type Toxins in Monotropa uniflora L.

Monotropa uniflora L. (“ghost pipe”), is a North American traditional medicinal plant which has recently seen an increase in consumption nationwide. However, a single 1889 study reported the presence ...

pubs.acs.org

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Josh Kellogg @kelloggnpgroup.bsky.social · 20d

A fun project with our partners at Penn State College of Medicine, looking at conventional vs cover crop systems for cannabis production, and the variation seen in the cannabinoid and terpenoid composition. The last manuscript for my student Cisco as well :)

American Council for Medicinally Active Plants @acmap.bsky.social · 20d

🚨Article Alert🚨in the Journal of Medicinally Active Plants!
From @kelloggnpgroup.bsky.social and Wesley Raup-Konsavage of @pennstateuniv.bsky.social, a report on the "Impact of Soil Quality on Cannabinoid and Terpenoid Content of Cannabis sativa L."
doi.org/10.7275/jmap...
#secmet
#botany
#cannabis

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Josh Kellogg @kelloggnpgroup.bsky.social · 21d

To our #secmet #chemsky #plantbiology #ethnobotany #plant #science folks, come check it out!
acmap.org/conference/

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Josh Kellogg @kelloggnpgroup.bsky.social · 21d

We're excited to host the 2026 @acmap.bsky.social conference "Science Meets Sweet Escape" here at @pennstateuniv.bsky.social's College of Medicine in Hershey, PA!

Early registration, student travel awards, and more information can be found on the website
acmap.org/conference/
Hope to see you there!

ACMAP Conference

This year’s meeting with a focus on the scientific advances in several health and nutritional areas including the newly emerging field of hemp and medicinal cannabis.

acmap.org

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Josh Kellogg @kelloggnpgroup.bsky.social · Sep 8

Thanks Dan, appreciate this feed and keeping the #secmet and #natprod community connected. What are the costs associated with upgrading the feed?

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Reposted by Josh Kellogg

Samantha Heller @samanthaheller.bsky.social · Aug 22

8/22 On Samantha Heller's Health & Nutrition Show, @NYUDocs, 12-2 pm ET: @MelissaJoyRD #RD clears up confusion abt #seedsoils, #CGM, #UPF! @kelloggnpgroup.bsky.social on pros/cons of #psychedelic microdosing. Open phones
877-NYU-DOCS.

Fashionista #butterfly: her body matches her wings 💕

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Josh Kellogg @kelloggnpgroup.bsky.social · Aug 4

At the #ASP #pharmacognosy conference, and got to see both my PhD (Mary Ann Lila) and postdoc (@nadjacech.bsky.social) mentors at the same time! I'm forever grateful to have had the chance to be guided by such brilliant strong scientists!

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Josh Kellogg @kelloggnpgroup.bsky.social · Jul 16

Our grad student @savannahanez.bsky.social was interviewed about her work on ghost pipe and its #ethnobotany and #pain #secmet potential, and was picked up by the @washingtonpost.com!

www.washingtonpost.com/home/2025/07...

The ghostly white plant that has sparked a war among foragers

Used medicinally by Native Americans for centuries, Monotropa uniflora — a.k.a. ghost pipe — is having a moment on social media. Not everybody is happy about it.

www.washingtonpost.com

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Josh Kellogg @kelloggnpgroup.bsky.social · Jun 17

So important for #openacess science!!

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Josh Kellogg @kelloggnpgroup.bsky.social · Jun 12

The workshop brought nearly 50 people to talk and share about medicinal plants of North Dakota, and our team did a great job leading their first field screening tutorials. Great job to the team, hopefully the first of many!

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Josh Kellogg @kelloggnpgroup.bsky.social · Jun 11

Kicking off our workshop "Bridging Worlds: Medicinal Plants and Modern Science" with our partner, United Tribes Technical College in Bismarck, ND. Thanks to @pennstateuniv.bsky.social's Huck Institutes for their support.
#ethnobotany #medicinal #plants #secmet

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Reposted by Josh Kellogg

Chanda Prescod-Weinstein 🌌 @chanda.blacksky.app · May 22

NSF Physics was cut by 85%, basically wiping out most of its capacity for supporting research.

NSF Astronomy was cut by 53%

Undergrad education was cut by 71% and research on learning by 79%

Graduate education was cut by 100% to ZERO.

#GiftLink ⚛️🔭

www.nytimes.com/interactive/...

Trump Has Cut Science Funding to Its Lowest Level in Decades (Gift Article)

The lag in funding extends far beyond D.E.I. initiatives, affecting almost every area of science: chemistry, computing, engineering, materials and more.

www.nytimes.com

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Josh Kellogg @kelloggnpgroup.bsky.social · May 22

I commented. You should too!

Jon Freeman @freemanjb.bsky.social · May 21

🚨 A new rule would let career scientists like NSF/NIH program officers be replaced by political appointees

Already 14,000+ public comments, deadline is Friday

📣 Comments can be short. Courts consider them—and scientists with NSF/NIH experience are especially impactful

Speak up! shorturl.at/WKuBj

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Josh Kellogg @kelloggnpgroup.bsky.social · May 19

Now that we're into spring/summer, this is a fun little map and blog post, for anyone who wants to visit #botanical #gardens throughout #Pennsylvania. Penn State's #arboretum is on the list, along with some other fabulous destinations :) Enjoy!

www.travellerselixir.com/pennsylvania...

Josh Kellogg @kelloggnpgroup.bsky.social · May 14

#plantscience
🌽🌾🌿

Josh Kellogg @kelloggnpgroup.bsky.social · May 14

Early Registration is extended until May 19th!
Come visit us at Penn State and join in some amazing #plant #secmet #naturalproducts talks, posters, and research!
#botanical
#academicsky

Josh Kellogg @kelloggnpgroup.bsky.social · Apr 14

Come join us at Penn State for the our Plant Biology Symposium this June 24-26th. The theme is #Plant Secondary Metabolism (from #genetics to #ethnobotany to medicine!)
Abstracts and registration are open now!
Travel awards available for students/PDs!
Click for more information! vqr.vc/oG1KKYNSh

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Reposted by Josh Kellogg

Carl T. Bergstrom @carlbergstrom.com · May 10

1. After getting some further insight into changes at NSF (thanks to those who reached out), I deleted a previous post where I tried to make sense of Cheatham's memo as reported in the Science story below.

NSF slashes number of ‘rotators’ and well-paid managers as part of restructuring

Smaller future budgets will require fewer people, NSF official tells staff

www.science.org

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Josh Kellogg @kelloggnpgroup.bsky.social · May 9

Congratulations!

the word congratulations is surrounded by multicolored confetti

ALT: the word congratulations is surrounded by multicolored confetti

media.tenor.com

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Josh Kellogg @kelloggnpgroup.bsky.social · May 6

-"You can detect small molecules in people to see what kind of trouble they're up to"

-"It meets my self-fulfillment needs (Pyramid image from lecture 1 slide 9 and Maslows hierarchy of needs)."

#secmet
#massspecsky
#chemsky

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Josh Kellogg @kelloggnpgroup.bsky.social · May 6

Every spring I ask my #metabolomics class "Why is metabolomics the best -omics out there? Wrong answers only!"

Some spring faves:

- "Metabolomics is the baddest -omics across the metaverse. It's actually my favorite DC villain."

-"The fact that it can teach you how to make a souffle!"
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Josh Kellogg @kelloggnpgroup.bsky.social · Apr 30

I'm getting results again, so hopefully it's back up. Glad to see it wasn't the victim of a larger purge :)
Thanks everyone!

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Josh Kellogg @kelloggnpgroup.bsky.social · Apr 29

Do any #plantbiology #secmet #botany or other folks know if the USDA's Plant Database is really just down for maintenance, or is it a larger closure/deletion? Thank you!
plants.usda.gov

plants.usda.gov

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Josh Kellogg @kelloggnpgroup.bsky.social · Apr 28

And she made @pennstateuniv.bsky.social's College of Ag Newsletter today!

www.psu.edu/news/researc...

Traditional forest medicinal plant ghost pipe used differently today | Penn State University

Despite a long history of traditional medicinal use in the United States, the collection, consumption and efficacy of the peculiar forest plant aptly named ghost pipe, scientific name Monotropa uniflo...

www.psu.edu

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