Lightnews — Scholar-powered news

Pleuni Pennings @pleunipennings.bsky.social · 3d

250000 people at protest in Amsterdam against genocide in Gaza

de Volkskrant @volkskrant.nl · 3d

Live: Derde Rode Lijn-protest breekt record: 250 duizend mensen betogen in Amsterdam

www.volkskrant.nl

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Reposted by Pleuni Pennings

seashmore @seashmore.bsky.social · 3d

Every day you wake up, you make a difference in the world. And you get to choose the difference that you make. 💞

KOJAMF🤘🖤🤘 @kojamf.bsky.social · 3d

Dr. Jane Goodall filmed an interview with Netflix in March 2025 that she understood would only be released after her death.

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Reposted by Pleuni Pennings

George Takei @georgetakei.bsky.social · 3d

Narrator: This is fascism.

The image is an X post by Mike Nellis (@MikeNellis
) from 19 hours ago, stating: "So let me get this straight: a Blackhawk helicopter and dozens of masked, armed federal agents roll up on a Chicago apartment building, cuff everyone—including kids—and then run checks for warrants and immigration status? What the hell is going on in this country? How is that not fascism?" The post includes a verified badge.

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Emanuel Fronhofer @efronhofer.bsky.social · 15d

Do you want to study #Quantitative #Ecology & #Evolution? Are you interested in a research-oriented #MSc program? Apply & join us at @umontpellier.bsky.social in the #IDIL program. #Fellowships available for #international #students

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Pleuni Pennings @pleunipennings.bsky.social · 19d

Wordpress and Bluesky don't work super well together yet. The post below was supposed to have an image of our house!

ruthkrishnan.com/property-lis...

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Pleuni Pennings @pleunipennings.bsky.social · 19d

We are selling our house in San Francisco

The front of our house in San Francisco. After having lived in San Francisco for 9 years (and in the US for 15), we decided to move back to Europe and landed in France. More about that in a future post! For now, I wanted to share that our wonderful house…

We are selling our house in San Francisco

The front of our house in San Francisco. After having lived in San Francisco for 9 years (and in the US for 15), we decided to move back to Europe and landed in France. More about that in a future post! For now, I wanted to share that our wonderful house is for sale.I loved living in this house in the Excelsior.

abetterscientist.wordpress.com

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Pleuni Pennings @pleunipennings.bsky.social · 19d

Hi everyone, we are selling our house. It's a great place for a family in San Francisco. I feel sad about leaving the house and the neighborhood but hope that another family of people and/or pets will make it their home!
Please share!

Andi Gros @andi-g.bsky.social · 20d

If you’re looking for a place in the Bay Area … As we’re moving to Europe, we’re selling our house in San Francisco: ruthkrishnan.com/property-lis...

647 Athens St | Excelsior | Ruth Krishnan - Top SF Realtor

ruthkrishnan.com

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Reposted by Pleuni Pennings

Governor JB Pritzker @govpritzker.illinois.gov · 20d

This is the playbook, folks.

If you're not paying attention now and doing something about it, then you're going to have to sit down the rest of your life because democracy is being taken away.

Do not be quiet in this moment.

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Pleuni Pennings @pleunipennings.bsky.social · 20d

Just cancelled #disney - kids are sad because we loose Bluey
#kimmel

Alp Beck @alpbeck.com · 20d

Call. Cancel. Spread the word.

#Disney #Kimmel #Hulu #ABC

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Pleuni Pennings @pleunipennings.bsky.social · 20d

Columbia has one of the best in evolution: @mollyprz.bsky.social

Pleuni Pennings @pleunipennings.bsky.social · 20d

The cancellation of Jimmy Kimmel is truly awful and yet another clear sign of the end of democracy in the US.

50501: The People’s Movement ❌👑 @50501movement.bsky.social · 20d

Jimmy Kimmel wasn't suspended because of what he said. He was suspended because the FCC threatened his employer.
That's state-sanctioned censorship and it is a GIANT RED FLAG 🚩🚩🚩 that authoritarianism isn’t *coming* it’s ALREADY HERE. Today it's Jimmy. Tomorrow it's the rest of us.

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Reposted by Pleuni Pennings

Kat Abughazaleh @katmabu.bsky.social · 22d

Today, the UN officially designated Israel’s assault on Gaza as a genocide.

As a party to the Genocide Convention, the U.S. has a legal obligation to obey our own laws, stop weapons sales to Israel, and demand a permanent ceasefire.

End the genocide. Ceasefire now.

257. The Commission recommends that all Member States:
(a) Employ all means reasonably available to them to prevent the commission of genocide in the Gaza Strip;
(b) Cease the transfer of arms and other equipment or items, including jet fuel, to the State of Israel or third States where there is reason to suspect their use in military operations that have involved or could involve the commission of genocide;
(c) Ensure individuals and corporations in their territories and within their jurisdiction are not involved in the commission of genocide, aiding and assisting the commission of genocide or incitement to commit genocide and investigate and prosecute those who may be implicated in these crimes under international law;
(d) Facilitate the investigations and domestic proceedings and take action (including imposing sanctions) against the State of Israel and against individuals or corporations that are involved in or facilitating the commission of genocide or incitement to commit genocide;
(e) Cooperate with the investigation of the Office of the Prosecutor of the International Criminal Court.
258. The Commission recommends that the Prosecutor of the International Criminal Court:
(a) Examine, within its continuing investigation in the Situation in the State of Palestine, the crime of genocide for amendment to existing arrest warrants and addition to future application for arrest warrants;
(b) Examine the involvement of officials mentioned in this report for inclusion as those most responsible for international crimes committed in the occupied Palestinian territory.

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Pleuni Pennings @pleunipennings.bsky.social · 27d

I didn't see anything disturbing, but now I know that Epstein was using that place as his Harvard office :-(

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Pleuni Pennings @pleunipennings.bsky.social · 28d

Your gut was right!

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Pleuni Pennings @pleunipennings.bsky.social · 28d

Knowing what I know now, I would not work with Nowak again and I would definitely not send students to work with him. Nowak gave Epstein access to his offices (after his first prison sentence) so he clearly don't care about keeping students safe.

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Pleuni Pennings @pleunipennings.bsky.social · 28d

I am interested in the Nowak-Epstein story because it is in my field and when I was at Harvard I worked with Nowak on a paper (I mostly worked with his students). I knew that he had a ton of money and fancier offices than the other Harvard profs, but didn't know about Epstein at the time.

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Pleuni Pennings @pleunipennings.bsky.social · 28d

In return for the money to Nowak, Epstein became associated with Harvard – he got access to Nowak's offices and was listed on Nowak's website as a "friend."
ogc.harvard.edu/report-conce...

Report Concerning Jeffrey E. Epstein's Connections to Harvard University | Office of the General Counsel

ogc.harvard.edu

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Pleuni Pennings @pleunipennings.bsky.social · 28d

I also looked up Nowak in the Epstein book. He lists himself with "Epstein Institute, Harvard" as his affiliation. (No Epstein institute exists).
Epstein donated millions to Nowak over the years which funded Nowak's Program for Evolutionary Dynamics.

Screenshot of first page of Martin Nowak's entry to the Epstein birthday book. The title is "The mathematics of life", the second line reads "Martin Nowak", third line: "Epstein Institute, Harvard University. The 4th line and further is about science / genetics/ evolution.

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Pleuni Pennings @pleunipennings.bsky.social · 28d

Such pretty mini-videos and cool science too!

Alison Feder @alisonfeder.bsky.social · 28d

The constant barrage of terrible news on bluesky has made me feel weird about promoting papers, but people in the lab have been doing so much amazing work over the past few months that I want to share a few brief teasers/links:

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Pleuni Pennings @pleunipennings.bsky.social · 29d

Some things are getting better. Bullying in schools in the US on the basis of sex, race and disability has gone down a lot from 2011-2021. All that "woke" and DEI stuff, it helps! #usafacts

usafacts.org/articles/how...

Graph showing number of students reporting bullying on basis of sex, race or disability. It changes from 182K students in 2011-2012 to 29K students in 2020-2021.

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Pleuni Pennings @pleunipennings.bsky.social · Sep 2

Cool data science paper on drug resistance evolution!

Michael Baym @baym.lol · Sep 1

What was antibiotic resistance like before we ever used antibiotics? How did we change what antibiotic resistance genes looked like over 100 years?

Our paper looking at resistance genes from a century of NCTC historical isolates now out in mGen:
www.microbiologyresearch.org/content/jour...

Genomic resistance in historical clinical isolates increased in frequency and mobility after the age of antibiotics

Antibiotic resistance is frequently observed shortly after the clinical introduction of an antibiotic. Whether and how frequently that resistance occurred before the introduction is harder to determin...

www.microbiologyresearch.org

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Pleuni Pennings @pleunipennings.bsky.social · Aug 30

I drew mostly in good notes and recorded as screencast. One scene was drawn in procreate. I edited everything in iMovie.

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Pleuni Pennings @pleunipennings.bsky.social · Aug 30

Thank you Becca!

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Pleuni Pennings @pleunipennings.bsky.social · Aug 30

Thanks!

Reposted by Pleuni Pennings

Alison Feder @alisonfeder.bsky.social · Aug 30

Amazing new work and video from Pleuni!

Pleuni Pennings @pleunipennings.bsky.social · Aug 29

I made a video about my new paper. I hope you enjoy it!

vimeo.com/1113132836?s...

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