Lightnews — Scholar-powered news

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Gail Drakes @gaildrakes.bsky.social · 2d

I just learned that the number of children in the U.S. navigating life with Long COVID exceeds that of the number of kids with asthma.

Wow.

Long COVID is here to stay—even in children

Post-acute sequelae of SARS-CoV-2 infection (PASC, also known as long COVID) are complex, multisystem, long-lasting complications of SARS-CoV-2 infection that profoundly impact the daily life of those...

www.thelancet.com

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Audrey Truschke @audreytruschke.bsky.social · 1d

A Rutgers professor has been forced to flee the country for his safety, after targeting by a far-right student group that was *checks notes* claiming they felt unsafe.

I'm horrified.
I'm angry.

A short 🧵 #AcademicFreedom #Rutgers #violence #antifa

www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025...

Rutgers professor moving to Europe after threats over antifa accusations

Mark Bray says threats intensified after a Turning Point USA petition accused him of promoting political violence

www.theguardian.com

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Sara Luterman @slooterman.bsky.social · 1d

Are rising prices and inflation eating into your or a loved one’s Social Security payments? Want to talk about it with a reporter for a news article? DM or email sluterman at 19thnews dot org.

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Keith Smith @drkeithsmith.bsky.social · 1d

⚛️

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Riley Black 🦕 🏳️‍⚧️ @restingdinoface.bsky.social · 2d

Getting off social in the sense of burrowing a few feet below the surface, exuding a mucus cocoon, and waiting for fairer conditions to return.

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Karmela Padavic-Callaghan (they/them) @kpc.bsky.social · 2d

On my personal newsletter this week, I am writing about One Battle After Another and how Benicio del Toro's character is the one to pay attention to, the new Kathryn Bigelow film A House of Dynamite, and sketching out a reliable vegan banana muffin recipe ultracold.substack.com/p/mediadiet-...

Media/Diet (October '25)

One Battle After Another + A House of Dynamite + vegan banana muffins

ultracold.substack.com

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Daniel Knowles @dlknowles.bsky.social · 4d

I visited the apartment building ICE raided on Tuesday today. Story to come, but you can walk right in. Half of the apartments have no doors on them. Children's stuff abandoned in some flats. *Citizen* residents told me they were arrested and held for hours in zipties. This is America

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Michael Le Page @mjflepage.bsky.social · 5d

A study suggests AI could help evade controls on synthesising bioweapons. Here's why this is like doing a fancy Mission Impossible-style bank raid when the vault door has been left open, the alarm is off and the guards are asleep 🧪

www.newscientist.com/article/2498...

Should we worry AI will create deadly bioweapons? Not yet, but one day

AI tools are being used to design proteins and even viruses, leading to fears these could eventually be used to evade bioweapon controls

www.newscientist.com

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Helen Branswell 🇨🇦 @helenbranswell.bsky.social · 6d

Leucovorin may have a role in treatment of some people with #autism. But one of the researchers who studied it warns it's not a silver bullet. @rosebroderick.bsky.social reports. www.statnews.com/2025/10/01/l...

Leucovorin has a place in autism treatment, researcher says, but he tamps down parents’ expectations

STAT spoke with Robert Hendren, a retired UCSF researcher who conducted a small study of leucovorin in children with autism in 2020.

www.statnews.com

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Robert “The Bobby Yaga” McNees @mcnees.bsky.social · 6d

Yesterday’s #OTD *should* have been astrophysicist Dr. George Carruthers, born 1939. He developed a UV spectrograph (launched in 1970 on a sounding rocket) that confirmed the existence of interstellar hydrogen, and a similar device placed on the moon by Apollo 16. 🧪 ⚛️

Image: US Naval Research Lab

Dr. George Carothers working on a shiny gold and black apparatus — his UV spectrograph. He is a Black man of thin or medium build, wearing a white lab coat over a green button/down shirt. He has on white gloves, and he is examining his spectrograph.

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Karmela Padavic-Callaghan (they/them) @kpc.bsky.social · 6d

November will be six months out from my book's publication date and I'm going to shift into being so deeply annoying you won't believe it

Karmela Padavic-Callaghan (they/them) @kpc.bsky.social · 7d

I’m reading an advance copy of a new pop science quantum book and in the first 100 pages it’s already twice claimed that quantum computers will solve climate change. If I weren’t reading for work, I’d rage quit right about now. We (science writers) gotta do better!

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Dan Garisto @dangaristo.bsky.social · 7d

The possibility of a shutdown has become routine in recent years (near misses in December and March). Now, the government has actually shut down, and the administration has threatened to use the opportunity for massive permanent layoffs.

Our story on the potential impacts for science:

This US government shutdown is different: what it means for science

President Trump’s budget office lays out guidelines for mass lay-offs across the federal government.

www.nature.com

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Elise Cutts @elisecutts.bsky.social · 7d

I've become such a grinch lol. As soon as I saw this, my "ITS NOT A BIOSIGNATURE" hackles went straight up 😅😂

This looks genuinely interesting, though. If it is a sign that there's active hydrothermalism on Enceladus then the lil snowball would be an even more exciting target for alien hunting.

ESA Space Science @science.esa.int · 7d

🆕 The discovery of new complex organic molecules at Saturn's #Enceladus enhances the likelihood that the moon is habitable 🪐

On Earth, these molecules are involved in chemical reaction chains that lead to the more complex molecules essential for life.

Read more 👉 www.esa.int/Science_Expl...
🔭 🧪 ☄️

Scientific illustration showing a cross-section of Saturn’s moon Enceladus. It features three labelled layers: An ice shell at the top, with visible cracks releasing jets of water vapour into space; an ocean in the middle, depicted as a large body of water beneath the ice; a rocky core at the bottom, shown emitting heat that may drive the jets. In the background, Saturn and its rings are visible in space.

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Laura Lopez @ohdearz.bsky.social · 9d

Ohio State just advised all staff and students not to attend the SACNAS (Society for the advancement of Chicanos and Native Americans in Science) annual meeting of 6000+ scientists -- which is in Columbus, OH this year! -- saying it may be exclusionary, even though it is open to all.

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Dan Garisto @dangaristo.bsky.social · 8d

NSF has a new banner. (Per contingency plan, 75% of staff are furloughed and most agency activities will stop.)

Due to a lapse in appropriations, NSF is closed. NSF will continue to accept proposals in accordance with published guidelines. Please continue to watch this site for changes to NSF's operating status, reopening guidance for employees, and if necessary, general instructions for recipients.

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Karmela Padavic-Callaghan (they/them) @kpc.bsky.social · 8d

He was the first professional physicist I had ever met, as a teenager at a science festival in Croatia. I asked him an overly wordy question in broken English and he was really kind about it. It felt like a huge deal at the time.

El Espectro 👻 🎃 @telescoper.bsky.social · 12d

R.I.P. George F. Smoot (1945-2025)

We will no doubt read many official obituaries in days to come, but all I can say is that he was a character, a very original thinker, a fine scientist, and a very nice man. Along with many others, I will miss him enormously.

R.I.P. George F. Smoot (1945-2025)

We will no doubt read many official obituaries in days to come, but all I can say is that he was a character, a very original thinker, a fine scientist, and a very nice man. Along with many others, I will miss him enormously.

telescoper.blog

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Dan Garisto @dangaristo.bsky.social · 12d

A rather grim update from Columbia from Peter Woit:

"Once you get on campus, the place is as peaceful and beautiful as always. The vibe is not East Berlin but Vichy-on-Hudson. Lots of security people around."
www.math.columbia.edu/~woit/wordpr...

The fall semester is now under way at Columbia, and in many ways things are normal: enrollments are as usual or higher, foreign students have mostly gotten visas and are on campus. There are some new things though which are very different.

The temporary card tables and tents housing the security at the gates have been replaced by permanent guard houses. The lockdown is no longer temporary but permanent. People have started referring to the main gate at 116th and Broadway as “Checkpoint Charlie”. Throughout much of the day people are lined up waiting to show their papers (a QR code). There’s additional security at most of the building entrances.

Once you get on campus, the place is as peaceful and beautiful as always. The vibe is not East Berlin but Vichy-on-Hudson. Lots of security people around. The Columbia administration had the flags lowered to honor Charlie Kirk. The Barnard president has a piece in the New York Times arguing that colleges need to host more speakers like Charlie Kirk.

The large video screens on campus intended for announcements often urge one to “Report a Concern” in order to “Help Prevent Discrimination and Harassment”. The screen has a large QR code which takes you to a page where you can report students for “behavioral misconduct”, specifically for “violations stemming from demonstrations and protests”. You can also report anyone for “Discrimination and Discriminatory Harassment”. These reports go to the “Office of Institutional Equity” which opens investigations. What I’ve heard from people this has happened to is: you don’t get told who reported you, have to hire a lawyer and will be under investigation for months, unable to tell anyone what is going on.

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Erin Reed @erininthemorning.com · 8d

I just got a VERY interesting email that allies in congress were upset that so many of my readers were calling about the anti-trans provisions. I'm here to say: good. I won't let them throw our rights under the bus by cover of night.

All's that to say, keep up the calls. They're hearing you.

Erin Reed @erininthemorning.com · 8d

1. It's shutdown day, and anti-trans provisions are on the line... either today, or in a few more weeks if a clean continuing resolution passes.

Trump posted a video this morning blaming a shutdown on trans people and immigrants.

Here is your shutdown guide.

Subscribe to support our journalism.

Shutdown Day Guide For LGBTQ+ People: "Continuing Resolutions" And New Anti-Trans Posts From The White House

Shutdown day is here, and there has been a lot of competing coverage on Republican priorities, Democrat's demands, and what shutdown politics means for LGBTQ+ people in America.

www.erininthemorning.com

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Dulwich Quantum Computing @dulwichquantum.bsky.social · 9d

Meme about noise from quantum industry vs me.

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Nathan Kalman-Lamb @nkalamb.bsky.social · 9d

Cornell is cancelling a distinguished professor's classes on Gaza and suspending him because of the complaints of a student who previously served in Israel's military surveillance agency and was literally recording the comments of other students in class and deliberately derailing discussion.

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Erin Reed @erininthemorning.com · 9d

7. The silence over a male shooter decked out in Trump gear and camo, paired with the media frenzy that erupts when a shooter is falsely linked to trans people, is a pattern. For years, the right has refused to reckon with the consequences of its own policies on guns, violence, and mental health.

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Kendra "Gloom is My Beat" Pierre-Louis @kendrawrites.com · 10d

He also gutted the VA of at least 150 psychologists and 500 social workers. I'm sure they weren't doing anything important.

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Vicky ACAB @vickyacab.bsky.social · 10d

When we talk about fundraising for people in Gaza it is about survival, it is about getting out of the worst circumstances. We rarely discuss their dreams, hope, for rebuilding? What lives will be lived if the bombs were to stop falling tomorrow? Alaa is asking for support for her future

Your help are an investment in rebuild a woman and an architect

My name is Alaa, and I hold a Master’s degree in Architecture.

chuffed.org

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Elizabeth Gibney @lizziegibney.bsky.social · 12d

I was going to post a rant about the perils of quantum computing hype, following the claim by #HSBC & #IBM that they have improved bond market predictions using a QC, but instead I will just link to Scott Aaronson's blog which says it all scottaaronson.blog?p=9170 🧪⚛️ cc @bullshitquantum.bsky.social

HSBC unleashes yet another “qombie”: a zombie claim of quantum advantage that isn’t

Today, I got email after email asking me to comment on a new paper from HSBC—yes, the bank—together with IBM. The paper claims to use a quantum computer to get a 34% advantage in predic…

scottaaronson.blog

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