Lightnews — Scholar-powered news

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Lena Ting @lenating.bsky.social · 8d

Sign the petition to restore eligibility of 2nd year grad students to the NSF GRFP. They are being robbed of the opportunities to advance their innovative science. @chubicki.bsky.social

Jeremy BOO! Yoder 🎃💀🕷️ @jbyoder.org · 9d

We've already got hundreds of students and mentors here, sharing how the sudden policy change has derailed plans. We're looking at formally "delivering" results to NSF leadership tomorrow, please do keep sharing and spreading the word: laurenkuehne.github.io/grfpChanges/

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Jessica Light (she/her) @jeclight.bsky.social · 8d

Job Alert! Please share widely. Tenure-track position in Plant Systematics in the Dept. of Ecology & Conservation Biology at Texas A&M @tamueccb.bsky.social. Job details here: apply.interfolio.com/171016 #plants #botany #herbaria #systematics #ecology #conservation #evolution

Picture of an oak tree showing leaves beginning to brown for fall. Picture taken College Station, Texas.

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Yoav Gilad @ygilad.bsky.social · Jan 17

My book, An Intuitive Primer on Effective Functional Genomics Study Design, is published! I’d really appreciate it if you could help spread the word, and I’d love to hear your thoughts and feedback. I hope people will find it useful.

It’s available on Amazon: tinyurl.com/mx2hewen

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AAUP @aaup.org · 8d

"Declining international student enrollment is a piece of the larger puzzle undermining the financial health of higher ed. [We see] programs shut down, campuses shut down, smaller public or private institutions closing & a curtailment of opportunities for students."

— Todd Wolfson, AAUP President

'A perfect storm' — more colleges at risk as enrollment falls and financial pressures mount

In part due to the Trump administration's changes to the student visa policy, there are fewer students on college campuses this fall.

www.cnbc.com

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Seth Edmunds @phealthy.bsky.social · 8d

This is pretty crazy, study models millions of indirect hurricane deaths potentially driving/contributing to the life expectancy disparity in the US:

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

a, Total incidence of TCs on CONUS by month. Bar height is sum of average maximum wind speeds for all state-by-storm events. Colours correspond to decades. b, Stacked overlapping excess mortality responses to each storm for all of CONUS. Each storm response aggregates state-level responses nationally, accounting for state-level population and adaptation. Outline colours correspond to the decade when the TC occurred. The upper envelope is the total estimated mortality burden for CONUS resulting from all TCs occurring during the prior 172 months (see Supplementary Fig. 3). c, Official deaths directly resulting from TCs for each month according to NOAA National Hurricane Center and NOAA National Weather Service6,7. The y-axis scale is the same for b and c.

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Noah Whiteman @nkwhiteman.bsky.social · 14d

Say hello to my little friend

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Cedric Feschotte @cedricfeschotte.bsky.social · 15d

📣 Our department is hiring an Assistant Professor in Evolutionary Cell and Molecular Biology to join the @weillinstitute.bsky.social PLS spread the word!
academicjobsonline.org/ajo/jobs/30607

Cornell University, Molecular Biology & Genetics

Job #AJO30607, WDR-00055221 Assistant Professor, Molecular Biology & Genetics, Cornell University, Ithaca, New York, US

academicjobsonline.org

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Facundo Romani @fromani.bsky.social · 16d

Very important paper and resource. Bryophyte genomes expanded by one order of magnitude. www.nature.com/articles/s41...

Bryophytes hold a larger gene family space than vascular plants - Nature Genetics

A super-pangenome analysis incorporating 123 newly sequenced bryophyte genomes reveals that bryophytes exhibit a larger number of unique and lineage-specific gene families than vascular plants.

www.nature.com

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Molecular Biology and Evolution @molbioevol.bsky.social · 20d

Matsunaga, @nkwhiteman.bsky.social et al. investigated odorant receptor evolution in drosophilids in response to plant toxins in herbivorous and generalist species.

insect-plant interactions

🔗 doi.org/10.1093/molbev/msaf164

#evobio #molbio #drosophila

Odorant Receptors Mediating Avoidance of Toxic Mustard Oils in Drosophila melanogaster Are Expanded in Herbivorous Relatives

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London Public Library @lpl.ca · Sep 5

Get the answers to some of life’s biggest questions with our curated selection of books for Science September!🔬 buff.ly/pCrm99i

A staff member holds a copy of the book The power of trees how ancient forests can save us if we let them by Peter Wohlleben.

The cover of the book Atlas obscura Wild life: an explorer’s guide to the world’s living wonders by Cara Giaimo.

The blue machine : how the ocean works by
Helen Czerski.
The cover of the book What if? 2 : additional serious scientific answers to absurd hypothetical questions by
Randall Munroe

The cover of the book Unrooted : botany, motherhood,
and the fight to save an old science by
Erin Zimmerman

The underworld journeys to the depths of the ocean bySusan Casey

The partial cover of the book The secret life of the universe an astrobiologist’s search for the origins and frontiers of life by
Nathalie A. Cabrol

The power of trees how ancient forests can save us if we let them by
Peter Wohlleben

The possibility of life science, imagination, and our quest for kinship in the cosmos by
Jaime Green

The other family doctor a veterinarian explores what animals can teach us about love, life, and mortality by Kate Fine

A staff member holds a copy of the book How to win friends and influence fungi collected quirks of science, tech, engineering, and math from nerd nite by Chris Balakrishna

The cover of the book The light eaters how the unseen world of plant intelligence offers a new understanding of life on Earth by Zoë Schlanger

The cover of the book The last days of the dinosaurs : an asteroid, extinction, and the beginning of our world by
Riley Black

The asteroid hunter : a scientist’s journey to the dawn of our solar system by Dante S. Lauretta

Science and cooking : physics meets food, from homemade to haute cuisine by Michael P. Brenner

The cover of the book On the origin of time : Stephen Hawking’s final theory by
Thomas Hertog

Most delicious poison the story of nature’s toxins--from spices to vices by
Noah Whiteman

LIT Life Ignition Tools use nature’s playbook to energize your brain, spark ideas, and ignite action by
Jeffrey Karp

Interstellar : the search for extraterrestrial life and our
future in the stars by
Abraham Loeb

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Mark Peifer (He, him) @peiferlabunc.bsky.social · Aug 23

The community of Drosophila researchers is amazing, mutually supportive and collaborative. Right now a key resource for our community, @flybase.bsky.social , is threatened by the cancellation of its NIH grant and is seeking community help in raising short term funds 1/n 🧪 please share

Dear Fly Community,

In May 2025, the NIH terminated all grant funding to Harvard University, including the NHGRI grant that supported FlyBase. This grant also funded FlyBase teams at Indiana University (IU) and the University of Cambridge (UK), and as a result, their subawards were also canceled.

The Cambridge team has secured support for one to two years through generous donations from the European fly community, emergency funding from the Wellcome Trust, and support from the University of Cambridge. At IU, funding has been secured for one year thanks to reserve funds from Thom Kaufman and a supplement from ORIP/NIH to the Bloomington Drosophila Stock Center (BDSC).

Unfortunately, the situation at Harvard is far more critical. Harvard University had supported FlyBase staff since May but recently denied a request for extended bridge funding. As a result, all eight employees (four full-time and four part-time) were abruptly laid off, with termination dates ranging from August to mid-October depending on their positions. In addition, our curator at the University of New Mexico will leave her position at the end of August. This decision came as a shock, and we are urgently pursuing all possible funding options.

To put the need into perspective: although FlyBase is free to use, it is not free to make. It takes large teams of people and millions of dollars a year to create FlyBase to support fly research (the last NHGRI grant supported us with more than 2 million USD per annum).

To help sustain FlyBase operations, we have been reaching out to you to ask for your support. We have set up a donation site in Cambridge, UK, to which European labs have and can continue to contribute, and a new donation site at IU to which labs in the US and the rest of the world can contribute. We urge researchers to work with their grant administrators to contribute to FlyBase via these sites if at all possible, as more of the money will go to FlyBase. However, we appreciate that some fu…

https://wiki.flybase.org/wiki/FlyBase:Contribute_to_FlyBase

Our immediate goals are:

1. To maintain core curation activities and keep the FlyBase website online

2. To complete integration with the Alliance of Genome Resources (The Alliance).

Integration with the Alliance is essential for FlyBase’s long-term sustainability. For nearly a decade, NHGRI/NIH has supported the unification of Model Organism Databases (MODs) into the Alliance, which we aim to achieve by 2028. Therefore, securing bridge funding to sustain FlyBase over the next three years is crucial for successful integration and the long-term access to FlyBase data.

At present, our remaining funds will allow us to keep the FlyBase website online for approximately one more year. Beyond that, its future is uncertain unless new funding is secured. We will, of course, continue pursuing additional grant opportunities as they arise.

Given the uncertainty of future NIH or alternative funding sources, we are relying on the Fly community for support. Your contributions will directly help us retain the staff needed to complete this transition and to secure ongoing fly data curation into the Alliance beyond 2028.

We at FlyBase are incredibly grateful for the outpouring of support from the community during this challenging time. Your encouragement has strengthened our resolve and underscores how vital this resource remains to Drosophila research worldwide.

Sincerely,
The FlyBase Team

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Noah Whiteman @nkwhiteman.bsky.social · Aug 26

Current students were not taught to write in cursive! Should I offer an informal class? Mine is almost illegible so maybe not, but it is fast. Those who can write in cursive are going to have an advantage in this brave new world of bluebooks and hourglasses: www.nytimes.com/2025/08/26/o...

Opinion | Students Hate Them. Universities Need Them. The Only Real Solution to the A.I. Cheating Crisis.

www.nytimes.com

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Lars Brudvig @lars-brudvig.bsky.social · Aug 22

Michigan State University is hiring a new Director of our herbarium!

This is an open rank, tenure-stream faculty position, with research focus in plant or fungal systematics, ecology, and/or evolution

Please consider applying and help spread the word!

plantbiology.natsci.msu.edu/job-postings...

plantbiology.natsci.msu.edu

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Molly Ohainle @mollyohainle.bsky.social · Aug 22

We're hiring in my Division of Berkeley MCB. Come be my new colleague!

berkeleyMCB @berkeleymcb.bsky.social · Aug 20

We're Hiring! Assistant Professor of Immunology and Molecular Medicine in MCB. Learn more and apply online:
aprecruit.berkeley.edu/JPF05096

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Noah Whiteman @nkwhiteman.bsky.social · Aug 16

A Pine White Butterfly, caterpillars of which feed on pine and fir needles (same family as Cabbage White)…

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Noah Whiteman @nkwhiteman.bsky.social · Aug 16

Western Ponderosa

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Nature Portfolio @natureportfolio.nature.com · Aug 13

A study in Nature Ecology & Evolution identifies a bacterial species as a cause of sea star wasting disease, which has been responsible for billions of sea star deaths since 2013 and widespread loss of kelp habitats. go.nature.com/46I4kx2 🌊 🧪

This is figure 2, which shows the disease signs and trajectory of P. helianthoides exposed to SSWD.

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Richard Behringer @rrbehringer.bsky.social · Mar 26

12 examples of how developmental biology research led to fundamental discoveries for biomedical research. There are many more! Download ppt & jpg versions on @socdevbio.bsky.social website. Use & modify as needed. Poster formats are also posted to print & hang in your lab!

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PlantEvolution 🌱🌾 @plantevolution.bsky.social · Aug 10

Wonderful (and humble) essay on mentorship by Brandon Gaut, on occasion of Brandon receiving the inaugural Mentorship Award of @genetics-gsa.bsky.social. I hope this will be widely read!

academic.oup.com/genetics/art...

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Stacey D. Smith @iochromaland.bsky.social · Aug 11

Big news! We are recruiting a postdoc to work on tomatillo evolution: jobs.colorado.edu/jobs/JobDeta.... The clade containing tomatillos and its allies (ca 300 spp) has evolved lantern fruits at least 25 times - we want to know why! Join us @rociodeanna.bsky.social & @caschenck-bio.bsky.social

Postdoctoral Fellow in Tomatillo Evolution

jobs.colorado.edu

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Noah Whiteman @nkwhiteman.bsky.social · Aug 11

The *hardcover* version of Most Delicious Poison is currently 51% off at Amazon, ~$15 (but please buy from your local bookstore if you can): www.amazon.com/Most-Delicio...

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Pam Ronald @pcronald.bsky.social · Aug 5

Good news for NIH MIRA applicants. Grants.gov recently published the forecast notice for the reissuance of the EI/NI MIRA notice of funding opportunity. As indicated at the link, the estimated post date for the NOFO is Nov 3. www.grants.gov/search-resul...

Lock

www.grants.gov

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Noah Whiteman @nkwhiteman.bsky.social · Jul 28

@ucberkeleyofficial.bsky.social undergrads, there is still space in this course on the cellular, genetic, and developmental basis of evolution taught by Professor Nicole King and me this Fall. Find out why, as Dobzhansky, said "nothing in biology makes sense except in the light of evolution."

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Noah Whiteman @nkwhiteman.bsky.social · Jul 28

Calling all @ucberkeleyofficial.bsky.social undergrads! Professor Nicole King and I are teaching MCELLBI 143: “Evolution of Genomes, Cells, and Development” this Fall (Tu/Th 11am-12:30 with Fr 9-10am Discussion). On Fridays we discuss papers and tour places like the UC Paleontology Museum.

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tracey depellegrin @traceydepellegrin.bsky.social · Jul 24

Advocacy is hard these days! @genetics-gsa.bsky.social is publishing stories highlighting the devastating impacts behind recent policies.

What can you do? Amplify these stories & tell your own. As lawmakers head into discussions for the FY 2026 budget, your efforts are more important than ever.

How policy changes are driving top researchers abroad and what that means for the U.S.

The U.S. has long been a global leader in science, but that position is at risk. As research funding drops and political pressures rise, scientists, particularly in academia and research institutes, a...

genestogenomes.org

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