Lightnews — Scholar-powered news

Julian A Nowogrodzki @plantnerd.bsky.social · 22h

Every time science says to eat less meat, Big Meat loses its mind

sentientmedia.org/the-study-bi...

The Study Big Meat Tried to Bury — and Why It Matters Again

When a sweeping scientific study called for eating less meat, the meat industry launched a full-scale attack. And we could be in for a repeat.

sentientmedia.org

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Julian A Nowogrodzki @plantnerd.bsky.social · 23h

Why are Saudi Arabian cattle eating alfalfa grown in the Arizona desert and then shipped around the world?

@ninaelkadi.com traveled to western Arizona to find out:

Sentient @sentientmedia.org · 1d

In La Paz County Arizona, like 80% of the state, there are few restrictions on groundwater use.

We went to investigate why the desert is running dry, and who stands to profit.

Meet the residents who fear that without change, the area will become unlivable.
buff.ly/32dhv7q

In the Arizona Desert, Where Your Neighbor Is an Alfalfa Farm

Meet the residents of La Paz County Arizona. Here, like 80% of the state, there are few restrictions on groundwater use. We went to investigate why the desert is running dry, and who stands to…

buff.ly

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Julian A Nowogrodzki @plantnerd.bsky.social · 23h

Factory farm dust could be the missing link in a major food poisoning outbreak, thanks to a "crazy hole in our food safety system”

Natasha Gilbert reports: sentientmedia.org/factory-farm...

How Factory Farm Air Pollution Can Spread Dangerous Bacteria

Factory farm dust can spread E. coli and could have sparked a large food poisoning outbreak in 2018, a new study shows.

sentientmedia.org

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Reposted by Julian A Nowogrodzki

American Physiological Society @apsphysiology.bsky.social · 14d

Women face unique addiction risks tied to hormones, metabolism and brain function. Learn how sex-based research is reshaping treatment approaches in #TPhysMag: ow.ly/gXmF50X0kY2 #SABV #WomensHealthResearch #APSWomensHealth @plantnerd.bsky.social 🧪

Hand holds a pink paper cutout of a brain shape with the words addiction inside an outline of a head

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Nina B. Elkadi @ninaelkadi.com · 18d

In regards to resident concerns about a new feedlot, the Kansas Department of Health and Environment wrote that they do not have the authority to evaluate the feedlot’s impact on “living conditions” or “general issues related to ‘quality of life.’”

s/o to @plantnerd.bsky.social for amazing edits.

Julian A Nowogrodzki @plantnerd.bsky.social · 18d

Great investigative reporting from @ninaelkadi.com here on a massive factory farm project in Kansas.

"Nitrate levels in the groundwater below one of the existing ILS feedlots have measured as much as 6 times the EPA’s safe drinking water standard"
sentientmedia.org/kansas-green...

Kansas Greenlights Mega Feedlot in “Sensitive” Water Area

Despite community pushback over groundwater pollution and health risks, the 88,000-head feedlot will be one of the largest in the state.

sentientmedia.org

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Julian A Nowogrodzki @plantnerd.bsky.social · 18d

My pleasure!

Julian A Nowogrodzki @plantnerd.bsky.social · 18d

Great investigative reporting from @ninaelkadi.com here on a massive factory farm project in Kansas.

"Nitrate levels in the groundwater below one of the existing ILS feedlots have measured as much as 6 times the EPA’s safe drinking water standard"
sentientmedia.org/kansas-green...

Kansas Greenlights Mega Feedlot in “Sensitive” Water Area

Despite community pushback over groundwater pollution and health risks, the 88,000-head feedlot will be one of the largest in the state.

sentientmedia.org

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Reposted by Julian A Nowogrodzki

Josie Glausiusz @josiegz.bsky.social · 23d

On the Trump administration's cruel disbanding of the Pediatric Brain Tumor Consortium: my op-ed @statnews.com

My 12-year-old son died from brain cancer. This research would have helped children like him

www.statnews.com/2025/09/15/p...

The Trump admin’s cruel disbanding of the Pediatric Brain Tumor Consortium

My 12-year-old son died from brain cancer. The defunding of the Pediatric Brain Tumor Consortium will deny treatments to children like him.

www.statnews.com

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Julian A Nowogrodzki @plantnerd.bsky.social · 26d

Thank you for being transparently ethical about this

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Julia Métraux @juliametraux.bsky.social · Jul 10

Disabled people are 11 times more likely to die during labor/in the postpartum period than non-disabled people. Better education and smashing ableism is how we get out of this horrible stat.

For the past year, I’ve been looking into the topic of disability and pregnancy for @motherjones.com 🧵

Pregnancy is a minefield when you're disabled

Few OB-GYNs get disability training—and their disabled patients are far likelier to die.

www.motherjones.com

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Sandhya Dirks @audiosand.bsky.social · 27d

taps sign again

we are in a diagnostic and epistemological crisis and our media ecosystem - including supposedly fact based legacy orgs - are at the center of it.

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NPR @npr.org · 27d

They're called "serodiscordant" couples. One is HIV positive, the other negative. Aid from the U.S. enabled them to obtain medicines and condoms for protection — until this year.

Love, drugs and condoms: Couples with different HIV status face a new reality

They're called "serodiscordant" couples. One is HIV positive, the other negative. Aid from the U.S. enabled them to obtain medicines and condoms for protection — until this year.

n.pr

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Gaea Cabico @gaeacabico.bsky.social · Aug 28

“A lot of doulas are starting to burn out, and we’re not the band-aid for the deficiencies in the health care system—and that’s sometimes how we’re treated,” said Anjanette Silas, a doula based in Staten Island. My latest for @prismreports.org prismreports.org/2025/08/25/d...

Doulas empower mothers in NYC, but struggle with finances and burnout

In the face of a growing maternal mortality crisis, doulas are seen as a critical form of support. But the field has many barriers to entry

prismreports.org

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Julian A Nowogrodzki @plantnerd.bsky.social · 27d

“We absolutely can allocate blame, and we absolutely should” www.nature.com/articles/d41...

Dozens of heatwaves linked to carbon emissions from specific companies

Nearly one-quarter of heatwaves would have been ‘virtually impossible’ without global warming — and can be attributed to the emissions of individual energy producers.

www.nature.com

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cara giaimo @cjgiaimo.bsky.social · Sep 5

my new book wherein ocean creatures give you life advice is on preorder sale for members at barnes + noble today www.barnesandnoble.com/w/leaving-th...

Leaving the Ocean Was a Mistake: Life Lessons from Sixty Sea Creatures|Hardcover

Sixty bizarre and beautiful marine creatures offer affirmations for self-confidence, serenity, and fulfillment—drawn from real-life facts about our fascinating natural world.If you sometimes wis...

www.barnesandnoble.com

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GrowTheSky @growthesky.bsky.social · 29d

Please follow your US State Attorney General.

US State Attorney Generals w/Bluesky accounts.

Chat @growthesky.bsky.social if you notice something incorrect or missing.

#GTS-US-State-AG

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Sentient @sentientmedia.org · Aug 28

In 2020, the world produced more than enough calories to feed the global population, but only half of those calories reached people’s plates due to rising meat and biofuel production. @mjflepage.bsky.social reports for @newscientist.com:

Fewer than half the calories grown on farms now reach our plates

In 2020, the world produced more than enough calories to feed the global population, but only half of those calories reached people’s plates due to rising meat and biofuel production

buff.ly

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Brandy Zadrozny @brandyzadrozny.bsky.social · Aug 28

New: In 7 months, Kennedy has broken the CDC, perhaps irreparably. For all he’s done with mass firings, gutting expertise, and attacking vaccines, Wednesday’s loss of its most senior and competent leaders—truly the CDC’s backbone—is the most consequential attack yet.

www.msnbc.com/msnbc/news/c...

‘People will die because of this’: How RFK Jr. drove out the CDC’s senior leaders

On the same day Susan Monarez was fired, four of the agency’s top leaders quit.

www.msnbc.com

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404 Media @404media.co · Aug 25

Citizen Is Using AI to Generate Crime Alerts With No Human Review. It’s Making a Lot of Mistakes

🔗 www.404media.co/citizen-is-u...

Citizen Is Using AI to Generate Crime Alerts With No Human Review. It’s Making a Lot of Mistakes

Three sources described how AI is writing alerts for Citizen and broadcasting them without prior human review. In one case AI mistranslated “motor vehicle accident” to “murder vehicle accident.”

www.404media.co

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Joseph Cox @josephcox.bsky.social · Aug 27

New: Flock, the ALPR company in thousands of U.S. communities and which ICE taps into, wants to partner with a firm that sells dashcams to ordinary drivers. Nexar gets "trillions" of images a month from the dashcams. Could turn cars into roaming surveillance devices www.404media.co/flock-wants-...

Flock Wants to Partner With Consumer Dashcam Company That Takes ‘Trillions of Images’ a Month

That dashcam in your car could soon integrate with Flock, the surveillance company providing license plate data to DHS and local police.

www.404media.co

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Joseph Cox @josephcox.bsky.social · Aug 27

Some images taken by Nexar dashcams. Now, the plan is for this dashcam company to integrate with Flock, whose business is based on selling access to license plate data to law enforcement www.404media.co/flock-wants-...

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Reposted by Julian A Nowogrodzki

Nature @nature.com · Aug 18

"I love to tell people is that computing is a Black people’s thing"

Passionate about making smaller and more efficient semiconductors, physicist Sonia Guimarães is a relentless voice for equity in Brazilian science.

go.nature.com/4oxew1E

‘Computing is a Black people’s thing’

Passionate about making smaller and more efficient semiconductors, physicist Sonia Guimarães is a relentless voice for equity in Brazilian science.

go.nature.com

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Brian Merchant @bcmerchant.bsky.social · Aug 18

Nvidia gets the spotlight, but *two* major groups are selling shovels in the AI gold rush, who profit whether or not AI products pan out: Chipmakers and Big Cloud—Google, Microsoft + Amazon.

A new study by @davidthewid.bsky.social + Nathan Kim shows how the AI boom is fueling Big Cloud's land grab:

The real winner of the AI boom so far? Big Cloud

How Microsoft, Google, and Amazon are concentrating even more power in the age of AI.

www.bloodinthemachine.com

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Kate Starbird @katestarbird.bsky.social · Aug 18

I've also been thinking of Lysenko recently, and the history lesson of how pseudoscience in service of a totalitarian regime destroyed tens of millions of lives. Rasmussen makes that comparison sharper by holding Lysenko's pseudoscientific journey up to Bhattacharya's.

Angie Rasmussen @angierasmussen.bsky.social · Aug 18

Привет, товарищи! It’s another glorious day in which Trump’s America is increasingly indistinguishable from Stalinist Russia, so I thought an armchair comparative analysis was in order.

Specifically about Jay Bhattacharya's twin from times past, Trofim Lysenko.
open.substack.com/pub/rasmusse...

Bhattacharya is the New Lysenko

Starving the NIH through ineptitude, bitterness, and thirst for revenge

open.substack.com

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Julian A Nowogrodzki @plantnerd.bsky.social · Jul 22

This is so cool. 24 citizen scientists collected brainwave data on ~8,000 people that's just as good as data collected by expensive lab setups and only cost $50 per participant www.nature.com/articles/d41...

Budget brainwaves: low-cost system collects brain data outside the lab

Neuroscience initiative in India and Tanzania amasses a trove of high-quality EEG recordings from diverse populations.

www.nature.com

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