Lightnews — Scholar-powered news

Lauren McPhillips @lmcp.bsky.social · Jun 11

The taste of early summer ☀️ 🍓

Lauren McPhillips @lmcp.bsky.social · Jun 8

"The grid operators in MI and PA said they hadn’t asked for the orders and hadn’t planned on using the plants this summer.

The costs to keep the plants open, which could total TENS OF MILLIONS OF DOLLARS, ARE EXPECTED TO FALL ON CONSUMERS."

www.nytimes.com/2025/06/06/c...

Coal and Gas Plants Were Closing. Then Trump Ordered Them to Keep Running.

www.nytimes.com

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Reposted by Lauren McPhillips

Michael Clemens @mclem.org · May 21

They're terminating OPT.

Today the nominee to head USCIS stated directly: he will end Optional Practical Training, the single largest channel for high-skill immigrants to work in the US.

6 weeks ago I warned about this & summarized the research on impacts of this drastic action—> @piie.com

Skilled immigration on the chopping block? Effects of eliminating "Optional Practical Training" in the US

The White House has taken numerous steps to sharply reduce the number of immigrant workers, with or without legal status, in the US economy. These policies, so far, typically target immigrants with le...

www.piie.com

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Lauren McPhillips @lmcp.bsky.social · May 21

Just a plug that the UMD Integration and Application Network (IAN) has some absolutely stellar scientific graphics- mostly Chesapeake Bay watershed & enviro sci related, but also lots of other work beyond as well ian.umces.edu/media-librar...

Media Library | Integration and Application Network

The IAN symbol libraries currently contain 3075 custom made vector symbols designed specifically for enhancing science communication products with diagrammatic representations of complex processes. Yo...

ian.umces.edu

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Reposted by Lauren McPhillips

Jon Levy @jonlevybu.bsky.social · May 15

On a day when all research grants at Harvard were terminated, and in a context where Congress seems to broadly accept the notion that destroying science and health research in the US is fine, it’s worth noting that this is not what the public wants.

Jacquelyn Gill @jacquelyngill.bsky.social · May 14

The American public is broadly supportive of maintaining federal science and medical research funding, and against punishing universities by taking their funding away, according to a new poll:

Few support punitive funding cuts to colleges and universities - AP-NORC

Most of the public believes that colleges and universities make significant contributions to scientific and technological advancement and think their federal research funding should be maintained.

apnorc.org

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Reposted by Lauren McPhillips

Carl Zimmer @carlzimmer.com · May 1

Nature reports that the National Science Foundation has stopped awarding new grants and allotting funds to existing ones. All of them. @colincarlson.bsky.social says that unless the freeze is lifted, it “is going to destroy people's labs.” 2/10
www.nature.com/articles/d41...

Exclusive: NSF stops awarding new grants and funding existing ones

US science funder also plans to screen grant applications for compliance with ‘agency priorities’.

www.nature.com

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Lauren McPhillips @lmcp.bsky.social · Apr 27

Nice, that was my guess with the old barn. Cool!

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Lauren McPhillips @lmcp.bsky.social · Apr 27

Where do you set these up?

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Reposted by Lauren McPhillips

Noam Ross @noamross.net · Apr 25

🚨 Another major round of #NSF terminations today 😞. Please report and encourage your colleagues to as well! We need this info to shed light on the damage caused, and to organize and advocate for science that includes and benefits all. airtable.com/appGKlSVeXni... 🧪

Noam Ross @noamross.net · Apr 19

🚨Report your NSF grant terminations! 🚨

We are starting to collect information on NSF grant terminations to create a shared resource as we have for NIH. The more information we collect, the more we can organize, advocate, and fight back! Please share widely!

airtable.com/appGKlSVeXni...

NSF Grant Termination Information Collection Form

Please use this form to submit information identifying specific NSF grants that have been cancelled for any reason after January 20, 2025.

We are tracking these grants to increase transparency, organize affected PIs, and facilitate responses, including via litigation. Please share the form as widely as possible with your networks.

We are actively building a pipeline to organize these terminations and will soon have a tracker akin to our NIH grant tracker at https://airtable.com/appjhyo9NTvJLocRy/shrNto1NNp9eJlgpA

WE WILL NOT DISCLOSE THE IDENTITY OF ANYONE WHO USES THIS FORM TO PROVIDE INFORMATION. We will keep your identity confidential.

These resources are maintained by Noam Ross of rOpenSci and Scott Delaney of the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, with input and support from additional volunteers. For any questions, please contact Scott Delaney on Signal (sdelaney.84).

THANK YOU FOR YOUR ASSISTANCE!

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Reposted by Lauren McPhillips

Peter Gleick @petergleick.bsky.social · Apr 25

Buy books. But not from Amazon. Buy them from Bookshop.org, the independent site. This move by Amazon is shameful.

Here is a link to my book on Bookshop.org.

bookshop.org/p/books/the-...

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Reposted by Lauren McPhillips

Science Magazine @science.org · Apr 24

Exclusive: The director of the National Science Foundation announced his resignation today, 16 months before his 6-year term ends, in a letter to staff obtained by Science. scim.ag/42vc3fn

Exclusive: ‘I have done all I can’: NSF director announces he is resigning

Sethuraman Panchanathan, a Trump appointee who has led the agency since 2020, leaves amid mass firings and grant terminations

scim.ag

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Lauren McPhillips @lmcp.bsky.social · Apr 14

Yes we have used several MX water level loggers in catch basins/ storm sewer pipes a few years ago where we wanted to download data w/o removing each time. The Bluetooth feature was great!

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Reposted by Lauren McPhillips

Margaret Garcia @garciamargarete.bsky.social · Apr 10

You know I’ve liked paying less for water and am still enjoying my showers. If the ‘water barely comes out’ you might have a plumbing problem www.whitehouse.gov/fact-sheets/...

Fact Sheet: President Donald J. Trump Makes America’s Showers Great Again

UNDOING THE LEFT’S WAR ON WATER PRESSURE: Today, President Donald J. Trump signed an Executive Order to end the Obama-Biden war on water pressure and make

www.whitehouse.gov

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Reposted by Lauren McPhillips

Seth Abramson @sethabramson.bsky.social · Apr 1

Indeed.

Maybe Don’t Take for Granted That You’ll Be Able to Vote in the Midterms

The SAVE Act is a direct attack on women’s voting rights.

slate.com

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Lauren McPhillips @lmcp.bsky.social · Mar 31

Intriguing trends in grey vs green stormwater infra strategies in the new ASCE infra report card. "Although green infrastructure is critical in addressing localized drainage and water quality, these systems cannot provide sufficient capacity to manage large-scale stormwater events."

graph of grey and green infrastructure showing increase of green infra in 2017 and then decrease, while increase in grey infra since 2018

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Lauren McPhillips @lmcp.bsky.social · Mar 29

Penn State is hosting the regional American Soc of Civil Engineers Student Symposium. Day 1 is in the books! So much energy and creativity in these student competitions ❤️

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Lauren McPhillips @lmcp.bsky.social · Mar 25

🤣

Lauren McPhillips @lmcp.bsky.social · Mar 22

My son thought this was very cool :)

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Lauren McPhillips @lmcp.bsky.social · Mar 21

Awesome, good luck to them! Also, a bit funny that PA championships seem to be at WVU :)

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Lauren McPhillips @lmcp.bsky.social · Mar 20

Happy vernal equinox! Every year I am amazed again at nature's rebirth, the ability of plants to push through the depths of soil to grow again 🌱

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Lauren McPhillips @lmcp.bsky.social · Mar 17

There is a need to develop common performance standards for large-scale NBS and for guidance on which measures are key to consider for flood mitigation and co-benefits. Success of NBS for fluvial flood mitigation depends on research and practice guided by transdisciplinary systems thinking.

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Lauren McPhillips @lmcp.bsky.social · Mar 17

While we find that NBS can mitigate fluvial floods, our study also highlights that inconsistencies in methods, a dearth of empirical studies, and variability in reported values limit generalization and comparison across NBS. Co-benefits are numerous, but few are quantified.

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Lauren McPhillips @lmcp.bsky.social · Mar 17

New review paper out on fluvial flood reduction 🌊 from nature-based solutions (NBS) 🏞 🌳led by Marina Howarth w/ Alfonso Mejía & @drericasmithwick.bsky.social

#flooding #ecosystemservices #naturebasedsolutions

wires.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10....

Scaling Nature‐Based Solutions for Fluvial Floods: A Worldwide Systematic Review

Studying nature-based solutions ability to mitigate fluvial floods and provide co-benefits by systematically reviewing 131 papers, with 1076 case studies, and grouping them based on Ecosystem Focus T....

wires.onlinelibrary.wiley.com

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Lauren McPhillips @lmcp.bsky.social · Mar 13

Same 😫

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Lauren McPhillips @lmcp.bsky.social · Mar 13

No, the mission of the EPA should not be "to make it cheaper to buy cars, heat homes and run businesses." ...unless we're actually achieving the triple bottom line (planet, people, & profit) www.nytimes.com/2025/03/12/c...

E.P.A. Targets Dozens of Environmental Rules as It Reframes Its Purpose

Lee Zeldin, the E.P.A. administrator, said the agency’s mission was to make it cheaper to buy cars, heat homes and run businesses.

www.nytimes.com

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