Lightnews — Scholar-powered news

Reposted by Felix Elling

Britt Abrahamson @brittabrahamson.bsky.social · 12d

Nitrobacter NOB respond to environmental conditions by modulating their nitrite affinity, which highlights the importance of pre-culturing on experimental observations.

Michael Wagner @michiwagner4.bsky.social · Aug 5

Surprising finding:

#Nitrobacter can dynamically modulate nitrite affinity in response to both nitrite concentration and pH, conferring a flexible adaptation strategy

Great collaboration with the Sung-Keun Rhee lab

#MicroSky 🧪 #nitrification #kinetics

www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...

Kinetic Plasticity of Nitrite-Oxidizing Bacteria Containing Cytoplasmic Nitrite Oxidoreductase

Nitrite oxidation, the second step of nitrification, is essential to the global nitrogen cycle. Nitrite-oxidizing bacteria (NOB) are classified into two groups based on the cellular localization of th...

www.biorxiv.org

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Jordon Hemingway @jordonhemingway.bsky.social · 13d

Very cool write-up by @ethz.ch on our recent paper in @nature.com on reconstructing dissolved organic carbon in the ocean through geologic time! Led by Nir Galili @eth-eaps.bsky.social

ethz.ch/en/news-and-...

Minute witnesses from the primordial sea

Researchers at ETH Zurich have been able to measure - for the first time - how the amount of dissolved organic carbon in the sea has changed over geological time. The results reveal that our explanati...

ethz.ch

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Jacquelyn Gill @jacquelyngill.bsky.social · 19d

This thread is a delight.

Duncan Mackay @theduncanmackay.bsky.social · 19d

#OTD 19 September 1991, walkers in the high Ötztal alps on the Italian border, found a body melting out of the ice. It turned out to be the remains of a c.5200 year old man preserved with all his kit.
Of course, it was essential to replicate him in Playmobil.
1🧵
#PlaymobilÖtzi
#PlaymobilInfestation

Playmobil figure kitted out as prehistoric iceman Ötzi.

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Sophie Abby @soabby.bsky.social · 20d

Really glad to announce a new preprint from our lab: Global distribution of quinones in Bacteria! We here combine comparative genomics and text mining to leverage information on quinones distribution from thousands of articles describing new species and from dozens of thousands of genomes! 1/5

bioRxiv Microbiology @biorxiv-microbiol.bsky.social · 21d

Global distribution of isoprenoid quinones across Bacteria https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2025.09.17.676790v1

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Nature Communications @natcomms.nature.com · 20d

Are you a #geoscientist looking to transition to an #editorial career? Our #Earth team in Nature Communications is hiring, take a look here. www.nature.com/naturecareer...

Associate or Senior Editor, Nature Communications (Geosciences) - Shanghai, Beijing, Nanjing, New York, Washington, Jersey City, Madrid, Milan (hybrid) job with Springer Nature Ltd | 12844947

Job Title: Associate or Senior Editor, Nature Communications (Geosciences) Location(s): Shanghai, Beijing, Nanjing, New York, Washington, Jersey Ci...

www.nature.com

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Sonja-Verena Albers @archaellum.bsky.social · 21d

Happy to share that our story on the bacterial archaellum was published today in @natmicrobiol.nature.com
www.nature.com/articles/s41...

Congrats to the authors: @sshamphavi.bsky.social @loumollat.bsky.social @mariejoest.bsky.social Najwa Taib and @sgribaldo.bsky.social

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Rachel Lupien @loopdlupien.bsky.social · Sep 2

I'm looking for a driven PhD student to join us at @au.dk and to both generate new paleoclimate data in the lab and work on computational problems to understand climate relationships across timescales.

Get in touch if you'd like to hear more, and apply by Nov 1!

phd.nat.au.dk/for-applican...

phd.nat.au.dk

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Dr. Or M. Bialik |📚|🔬|🌊|⚒️ @obialik.bsky.social · Aug 25

An assumption we long had in Earth Sci was that, in the geological past, more diversity meant more life in general. Someone finally got around to checking that, and it works! Biomass patterns follow the biodiversity curve. 🧪⚒️

Link: www.cell.com/current-biol...

Variation in the biomass of metazoans and their biodiversity across the Phanerozoic

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Sonja-Verena Albers @archaellum.bsky.social · Aug 20

🚨 Imagine a bacterium that refuses to follow the textbook:
It grows as tangled filaments, divides unevenly, reshapes its own membranes… and even builds grappling hooks.
Meet Litorilinea aerophila — and here’s why it blew our minds.

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Jordon Hemingway @jordonhemingway.bsky.social · Aug 13

🚨 Paper alert! 🚨 After >1 year in review and six (6!) reviewers, I'm thrilled that this paper is finally out! Here, we provide the first data-based record of marine dissolved organic carbon in the geologic past.
www.nature.com/articles/s41...

The geologic history of marine dissolved organic carbon from iron oxides - Nature

A direct proxy for past dissolved organic carbon signatures using co-precipitated organic carbon in iron ooids enables reconstruction of marine dissolved organic carbon signals dating back to the Pala...

www.nature.com

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Britt Abrahamson @brittabrahamson.bsky.social · Aug 15

Excited to see our work about microbial interactions between anaerobic species in a synthetic community (co-, tri-, and quad-culture) degrading cellulose to methane published in ISME Communications!

Cameron Thrash @jcamthrash.bsky.social · Aug 15

Higher-order microbial interactions revealed by comparative metabolic modeling of synthetic communities with varying species composition academic.oup.com/ismecommun/a... #jcampubs

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David Needham @animalkewls.bsky.social · Jul 31

🚨 In case you missed it… our 4-year time-series analysis of Arctic Ocean viruses is out now!

Near-monthly samples — including through the dark, cold, polar winter ❄️ — using long-read metagenomics.

Short thread 🧵👇

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Dr. Or M. Bialik |📚|🔬|🌊|⚒️ @obialik.bsky.social · Jul 15

I have a fully funded open #position for a PhD student/postdoc in marine #biogeochemistry. As part of the MARBEDS project, we are seeking someone to study seafloor fluxes and their interactions with microbial communities in biodiversity hotspots.
🧪⚒️🌊
Contact me if you want more details.

Open position for PhD student / Postdoc in biogeochemistry
For a fully funded four-year project exploring environmental and
ecological dynamics in the Mediterranean and Red Sea, we seek a top
tier PhD student or postdoc. The project aims to understand the
formation and persistence of biodiversity hotspots, especially in light of
global climate change and local stressors. The ultimate goal is to
gather insights across different organizational levels, from molecular,
organismal, and community to habitat structure and biogeochemical
pathways, in order to construct comprehensive models that forecast
the future dynamics and fate of these ecosystems under changing
conditions. This position would be focused on a key aspect of this
project – the variability of seafloor fluxes and their interaction with the
microbial community to facilitate the habitability of shallow (up to 40 m)
and mesophotic (up to 200 m) biodiversity hotspots such as reefs.

Interested candidates, please contact by email Dr. Or Bialik (obialik@ocean.org.il) or Prof. Eyal Rahav (eyal.rahav@ocean.org.il) with a letter of motivation, CV, and contact details of at least one referee for this post not later than the 28th of August 2025.

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MarcA Millet @marcamillet.bsky.social · Jul 8

A new milestone for @weareagc.bsky.social.
Our first ever research article is now published!!

doi.org/10.33063/agc...

Free to read, free to publish. And more coming next week!

Thanks to the @eageo.bsky.social and @geochemsoc.bsky.social for their support along the way!

Can natural H2 be considered renewable? The reference case of a deep aquifer in an intracratonic sedimentary basin | Advances in Geochemistry and Cosmochemistry

Abrajano T, Sturchio N, Bohlke J, Lyon G, Poreda R, Stevens C (1988). Methane-hydrogen gas seeps, Zambales Ophiolite, Philippines: Deep or shallow origin? Chemical Geology 71(1): 211–222. https://doi.org/10.1016/0009-2541(88)90116-7.

doi.org

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Elda Miramontes @elda-miramontes.bsky.social · Jun 28

🚨Job alert PhD 🚨 We are looking for 15 new doctoral researchers at @marumunibremen.bsky.social @unibremen.bsky.social. Don't miss this fantastic opportunity! The deadline is the 25th of July. More information about the projects and how to apply can be found here 👇
www.uni-bremen.de/en/universit...

Job Vacancies - Universität Bremen

Offene Stellen

www.uni-bremen.de

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European Geosciences Union (EGU) @egu.eu · Jun 25

📆 Save the date for this #webinar featuring two invited speakers, Helle Astrid Kjaer and David Naafs, on Wednesday, 23 July 2025 at 16:00 CEST.

The session will explore past #climate variability and extreme weather events on decadal to millennial timescales.

👉 Register here : egu.eu/3V6540

Image description: An open laptop, a cup of coffee, and documents on a desk. With text reading:"webinar titled "Climate of the Past 20th Anniversary: High-Resolution Paleoclimate Data". register now.

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Ronnie Rattanasriampaipong @paleolipidrr.bsky.social · Jun 21

Now published in @agu.org Geophysical Research Letters!

What happens to marine archaea when they’re hungry? And what does that mean for the TEX₈₆ paleothermometer?

Full paper here: doi.org/10.1029/2025...

Thanks to my coauthors and mentors for their support — and stay tuned, more is coming!

A Nutrient Effect on the TEX86 Paleotemperature Proxy

Nutrient stress alters GDGT distributions in marine sediments, resulting in elevated TEX86 ${\text{TEX}}_{86}$ values beyond those related to thermal effects Paleoclimate case studies from the Ar...

doi.org

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Nature Microbiology @natmicrobiol.nature.com · Jun 18

#NewResearch

🚨Out Now

Phylogenomic analyses indicate the archaeal superphylum DPANN originated from free-living euryarchaeal-like ancestors, by @bbaker24.bsky.social @deemteam.bsky.social and team

#MicroSky #Archaea 🦠

www.nature.com/articles/s41...

Phylogenomic analyses indicate the archaeal superphylum DPANN originated from free-living euryarchaeal-like ancestors - Nature Microbiology

Phylogenetic reconstructions with conserved protein markers from the 11 known DPANN phyla reveal their monophyletic placement within the Euryarchaeota.

www.nature.com

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Simon Hammann @simonhammann.bsky.social · Jun 5

Question for bluesky hive mind: I want to upgrade my office set up for small presentations and joined work on a document without having to squeeze around my desk.
I have some ideas, but what solutions are people using? Any good recommendations or things to avoid?

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Hiro Imachi @hiro-imachi.bsky.social · Jun 4

Would you like to work with us?
At JAMSTEC, we are recruiting postdoctoral researchers through the Young Research Fellow program.
This program allows fellows to independently pursue their own research projects.
www.jamstec.go.jp/recruit/e/jy...

JAMSTEC Young Research Fellow (JYRF) | JAMSTEC - JAPAN AGENCY FOR MARINE-EARTH SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY

JAMSTEC Young Research Fellow (JYRF)

www.jamstec.go.jp

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Ben Uveges @benuveges.bsky.social · May 19

Wonderful write-up by the amazing @fatimagulhusain.bsky.social on our recent PNAS paper:

eaps.mit.edu/news-impact/...

3 Questions: Demystifying Earth’s Ancient Nitrogen Cycle

Today, oxygen is essential for much of life on Earth and is involved in many biological processes, including cellular respiration. But early Earth lacked an oxygen-rich surface until the Great […]

eaps.mit.edu

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Cindy De Jonge @cindydejonge.bsky.social · Apr 30

Working on the interface of organic geochemistry and archeology? Have an exciting dataset that is ready to write up? Or one of those papers that has been a draft since the Stone Age? Consider this special issue to publish your research, submission by 01/09. shorturl.at/O3gzV

Organic Geochemistry | ScienceDirect.com by Elsevier - Organic Geochemistry | ScienceDirect.com by ElsevierScienceDirect

Read the latest articles of Organic Geochemistry at ScienceDirect.com, Elsevier’s leading platform of peer-reviewed scholarly literature

www.sciencedirect.com

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Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft @dfg.de · May 8

#ECR attention! Just finishing your #PhD and wondering if the DFG’s Walter Benjamin Programme might be a funding option for you? Come and find out in our info talk in our research career series #Prospects (in English). The link to the meeting will be published here:
➡️ www.dfg.de/en/research-...

Walter Benjamin Programme
Monday, 26 May 2025, 3:30 - 5:00 p.m. CET

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Evgenii Protasov @evgenii-protasov.bsky.social · May 7

In our study, we showed that intestinal Methanosarcinales have reduced genomes and obligately dependent on H2 and CH3 compounds for #CH4 production. They lost the Wood–Ljungdahl pathway and membrane complexes (Rnf, Fpo, Ech).
academic.oup.com/femsec/artic...
@femsjournals.bsky.social @femsmicro.org

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Randall Munroe @xkcd.com · Apr 25

PhD Timeline xkcd.com/3081

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