Lightnews — Scholar-powered news

Mathew Summers @summersathome.bsky.social · 1h

well deserved!

Reposted by Mathew Summers

BWJones @bwjones.bsky.social · 3h

YEEEEEAAAAAAAHHHH, Teresa!!!

UC Berkeley @ucberkeleyofficial.bsky.social · 5h

Teresa Puthussery, a UC Berkeley vision scientist whose insights into the retina could one day help those with vision loss regain their sight, has been named a 2025 MacArthur “genius” Fellow. news.berkeley.edu/2025/10/08/v...

Vision scientist Teresa Puthussery receives MacArthur ‘genius’ award - Berkeley News

Puthussery’s discoveries about the retina are paving the way for new treatments for eye disease and vision loss

news.berkeley.edu

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Reposted by Mathew Summers

The Transmitter @thetransmitter.bsky.social · 1d

To celebrate the first anniversary of the release of FlyWire, we asked nine neuroscientists to share how they are using connectome data in their research and what they hope is in store for the future of fly connectomics.

By @franciscorr25.bsky.social

#neuroskyence

bit.ly/3Wx5nt3

How FlyWire is redefining Drosophila research, one year in

Nine Drosophila researchers share how the connectome transformed the field and what additional new tools they would like to see.

bit.ly

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Reposted by Mathew Summers

Congresswoman Pramila Jayapal @jayapal.house.gov · 2d

A huge congrats to Seattle scientist Mary E. Brunkow for winning the Nobel Prize in medicine!

This is exactly the kind of groundbreaking work that we should be leading on — and it’s exactly why I’ll continue to fight Trump’s cuts to the NIH and research.

www.seattletimes.com/seattle-news...

A Seattle scientist won a Nobel Prize. She thought the call was spam

Mary E. Brunkow, Fred Ramsdell and Dr. Shimon Sakaguchi won the Nobel Prize in medicine on Monday for their discoveries concerning peripheral immune tolerance.

www.seattletimes.com

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Mathew Summers @summersathome.bsky.social · 6d

Check out our resource for navigating and analyzing spatial transcriptomics data in the thalamus, which we fondly call "the THALMANAC" (𝐓𝐇𝐀𝐋amus 𝐌ERFISH 𝐀𝐍alysis and 𝐀𝐂cess), now live on bioRxiv:
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...

Exploring the correspondence between gene expression and thalamic nuclei using the THALMANAC resource

The thalamus connects the sensory organs and major subcortical brain regions with the neocortex. The thalamus has long been divided into multiple discrete nuclei, based on cytoarchitecture, histochemi...

www.biorxiv.org

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Mathew Summers @summersathome.bsky.social · 20d

Sensitivity is one thing, but do you think a single light sensitive ion channel will ever have sufficient dynamic range for natural-ish vision? After all, the retina uses tiered adaptation systems even for just photopic vision.
www.nature.com/articles/nat...

Light adaptation in cone vision involves switching between receptor and post-receptor sites - Nature

Humans can see in conditions from darkened cinemas to bright sun because cone photoreceptors adapt their mean output to the current light conditions; here, a second site of adaptation is identified, i...

www.nature.com

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Mathew Summers @summersathome.bsky.social · 20d

Cool stuff! I had a similar "headlamp test" when troubleshooting retina recordings.

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Mathew Summers @summersathome.bsky.social · 28d

If you're a trainee studying the thalamus, consider checking out our GRS on Thalamocortical Networks in Sensation, Behavior, and Disease: www.grc.org/thalamocorti.... Apply by Nov 16th to be considered for a talk!

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Reposted by Mathew Summers

Nigel Goldenfeld @nigelgoldenfeld.bsky.social · Aug 29

Very few PhD students finish within 4 years. But international students will need to do that if US proposed visa rules change go through.

Sound reasonable to you?

Fed register is accepting comments for next month. Details at the link & comment button

www.federalregister.gov/documents/20...

Establishing a Fixed Time Period of Admission and an Extension of Stay Procedure for Nonimmigrant Academic Students, Exchange Visitors, and Representatives of Foreign Information Media

Unlike most nonimmigrant classifications, which are admitted for a fixed time period, aliens in the F (academic student), J (exchange visitor), and most I (representatives of foreign information media...

www.federalregister.gov

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Reposted by Mathew Summers

Dr. Lucky Tran @luckytran.com · Aug 21

The ideological cancellation of $800 million of scientific research grants because they supposedly focused on DEI was just backed by the Supreme Court. This is horrific on so many levels.

Supreme Court allows NIH to stop making nearly $800M in research grants for now

But the court, in its emergency docket order, also left in place by a 5-4 order a lower court ruling that threw out NIH memos that enforced the administration's policies.

www.npr.org

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Mathew Summers @summersathome.bsky.social · Aug 20

A great environment!

Marla Feller @mfeller.bsky.social · Aug 20

Come join our new Department of Neuroscience @ucberkeleyofficial.bsky.social as an Assistant Professor! aprecruit.berkeley.edu/JPF05041

Assistant Professor - Molecular, Cellular, and Developmental Neuroscience - Department of Neuroscience

University of California, Berkeley is hiring. Apply now!

aprecruit.berkeley.edu

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Reposted by Mathew Summers

RoordaLab @roordalab.bsky.social · Jul 17

6+6 = 12 reasons to move to Waterloo, Canada.

First 6.....

6 job openings in the University of Waterloo School of Optometry & Vision Science/Waterloo Eye Institute.

lnkd.in/d3QD5wFA

see thread for the next 6.

This link will take you to a page that’s not on LinkedIn

lnkd.in

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Reposted by Mathew Summers

Max Kozlov @maxkozlov.bsky.social · Jul 14

NEW: In an unprecedented move, the NIH will soon disinvite dozens of scientists about to take positions on advisory councils that make final decisions on grant funding.

NIH staff were told to select others aligned with the Trump administration and told to expect placements by political appointees.

Exclusive: NIH to dismiss dozens of grant reviewers to align with Trump priorities

The move would undo years of work, leaving advisory councils understaffed, and without the full expertise needed for reviews.

www.nature.com

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Reposted by Mathew Summers

Chuck Taylor | Seattle @chcktylr.bsky.social · Jul 15

CCTV comes to Seattle.

Seattle police cameras, now up and running, draw constitutional concerns

Seattle's newly revamped Real Time Crime Center is operational, with analysts monitoring dozens of surveillance cameras placed in areas with high crime rates.

www.seattletimes.com

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Reposted by Mathew Summers

Ryan Packer @typewriteralley.bsky.social · Jul 11

This is amazing.

The momentum to fix the 8 is UNPRECEDENTED!

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Reposted by Mathew Summers

Alex Long @alexandralong.bsky.social · Jul 10

Really important article in the NY Times today about cuts to NIH diversity grants, featuring a profile of Ashley Albright @aralbright.bsky.social who is an amazing and super inspiring cell biology postdoc whose K99 was prematurely terminated.

Needhi Bhalla 💅🏽 @needhibhalla.bsky.social · Jul 10

“If you cut out these diversity measures, you're going to make science full of people that are very elite…Full of people who have grown up with a large amount of privilege, who were able to work in a lab in high school because their dad was a prof at Cornell.” 🧪

www.nytimes.com/2025/07/10/u...

How Trump’s D.E.I. Cuts Are Hurting Rural White Americans Too

www.nytimes.com

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Reposted by Mathew Summers

Eric Topol @erictopol.bsky.social · Jul 6

Summary Table of the massive defunding of biomedical research in the United States
www.nytimes.com/interactive/...

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Reposted by Mathew Summers

Michael Buice @mabuice.bsky.social · Jul 3

The ICE budget is now set to be approximately what the NIH budget was. We’re shifting money from solving real problems to solving fictitious problems.

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Reposted by Mathew Summers

Berkeleyside @berkeleyside.org · Jul 3

It's been a fixture of downtown for 20 years. It’s the second big Berkeley bookstore closure this year.

Half Price Books will close its downtown Berkeley store after 20 years

It's been a fixture of downtown for 20 years. It’s the second big Berkeley bookstore closure this year.

www.berkeleyside.org

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Reposted by Mathew Summers

Joshua Weitz @joshuasweitz.bsky.social · Jun 30

Part 2 - Slashing budgets of NIH, NASA, NSF (and NOAA, DOE, EPA and ...) undermines key employers in communities all across the US that form hubs of research and technology development. For NIH alone, we estimate $46B in economic loss and 202K lost jobs.

scienceimpacts.org/fy26

SCIMaP - Impacts of Federal Cuts to Science and Medical Research

View Projected Impact of the FY2026 Budget Cuts to the NIH

scienceimpacts.org

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Reposted by Mathew Summers

Mack Butterfield @mack2114.bsky.social · Jun 13

More Americans voted for Senator Alex Padilla than for 48 of the 53 red state GOP U.S. Senators combined.

That alone makes him a powerful senator.

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Reposted by Mathew Summers

actioncookBOOk @actioncookbook.com · Jun 5

ME: two of my most hated enemies are going to drag each other down
YOU: right, the Trump-Musk thing
ME: the what

ESPN @espn.com · Jun 5

Breaking: Aaron Rodgers plans to sign with the Pittsburgh Steelers, sources told Adam Schefter.

This ends the months of uncertainty around his future and unites the future Hall of Famer with a team that desperately needs a quarterback.

Rodgers plans to sign with Steelers, sources say

Aaron Rodgers plans to sign with the Steelers, sources told ESPN, uniting the future Hall of Famer with a team that desperately needs a QB.

spr.ly

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Reposted by Mathew Summers

Sen. Pumpkin Gogurt @ugarles.bsky.social · Jun 5

why not decommission it the usual way: launching it into a million pieces over protected wetlands

Best of Dying Twitter @bestofdyingtwit.bsky.social · Jun 5

“In light of the President's statement about cancellation of my government contracts, @SpaceX will begin decommissioning its Dragon spacecraft immediately”

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Reposted by Mathew Summers

Michael Battalio @battalio.com · May 31

The President's Budget request as released yesterday will gut scientific research. Why should you care?
1) Science is fundamentally a jobs program. Many 100,000s are employed to do science and work for you, the US taxpayer.

NSF, NASA and NIH budgets per year, inflation adjusted from 2000-2025 along with the proposed cuts. NSF includes research component only. Massive cuts across all sectors, well below support spanning 25 years.

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Reposted by Mathew Summers

Gregg Gonsalves @gregggonsalves.bsky.social · May 26

I subscribe to the @newyorker.com, I was part of ACT UP, I knew Larry Kramer well and know Tony Fauci too. Daniel Immerwahr's piece on RFKJr, features this and other passages that need a reponse. 1/

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