Lightnews — Scholar-powered news

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CIDRAP @cidrap.bsky.social · 15d

CIDRAP is hiring a Deputy Director, who, in addition to other duties, will serve as a liaison between CIDRAP and other areas of UMN, so must either live in the Twin Cities area or have the ability to relocate upon accepting the position. Apply today!

hr.myu.umn.edu/jobs/...

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Chicago Tribune @chicagotribune.com · Sep 2

Trump’s reelection was the tipping point. In April, Matthias Doepke sold his house and permanently moved his family to England to teach at the London School of Economics and Political Science.

This Northwestern professor fled the US under Trump. He hasn’t looked back.

Trump’s reelection was the tipping point. In April, Matthias Doepke sold his house and permanently moved his family to England to teach at the London School of Economics and Political Science.

www.chicagotribune.com

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Sen Pei @senpei.bsky.social · 26d

🚨 JOB ALERT! Our group is recruiting a postdoc to develop novel methodologies for early outbreak detection and inference using AI/ML, modeling, and data science. This is a multi-year position providing stable research support. Welcome to apply and share with others!

👉 apply.interfolio.com/173722

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Volker Rudolf @volkerrudolf.bsky.social · 26d

Awesome faculty position alert! Tenure-track assistant professor position in Evolutionary Biology, with a focus on organismal responses to environmental change.

Please help spread the word!
apply.interfolio.com/173889

Apply - Interfolio {{$ctrl.$state.data.pageTitle}} - Apply - Interfolio

apply.interfolio.com

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Al Roth @alroth.bsky.social · 25d

Kidney exchange has given rise to work not only in medicine but in economics, computer science and operations research.
#econsky #operations
marketdesigner.blogspot.com/2025/09/kidn...

Kidney exchange in Operations Research (and elsewhere)

marketdesigner.blogspot.com

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Elizabeth Jacobs, PhD @elizabethjacobs.bsky.social · Sep 7

RFK Jr. went on Fox News today to claim that HHS has had “no successes” in the past 40 years.

I beg to differ.

Figure from Lei et al., NEJM 2020. Link below.

Screenshot of graphic showing that the HPV vaccine has reduced cervical cancer incidence by 90%.

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Evelina Tutucci @anilevetu.bsky.social · Aug 26

Beatiful article @tobykiers.bsky.social !
Source: NPR
search.app/tP7Ep

How plants and fungi trade resources without a brain

Fungi and plants have something to teach humans about global trade and cooperation

search.app

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Ardem Patapoutian @ardemp.bskyverified.social · Sep 2

What an unprecedented and strong bipartisan voice to sound this alarm. Will the Republican Congress wake up and stop playing politics with the health of the American people?

Atul Gawande @agawande.bsky.social · Sep 1

9 CDC Directors going back to 1977 speak out. What RFK Jr has done to our nation’s public health system "should alarm every American."

It "is unlike anything we have ever seen at the agency, and unlike anything our country has ever experienced." www.nytimes.com/2025/09/01/o...

Opinion | We Ran the C.D.C.: Kennedy Is Endangering Every American’s Health

www.nytimes.com

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James Fallows @jfallows.bsky.social · Aug 30

This firefighter arrived in the US at age 4, has been here for 19 years, was on track to legal status, and was on a crew trying to contain a major blaze (in Washington state, vs Oregon, fwiw.)

h/t @joshuajfriedman.com

www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025...

Firefighter arrested by US border agents was on track for legal status, lawyers say

Lawyers say arrest of man fighting Bear Gulch fire in Oregon was illegal and demand immediate release from detention

www.theguardian.com

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Paul Krugman @pkrugman.bsky.social · Aug 28

I have an unusual problem with the elimination of the "de minimis" tariff exemption. When I give talks abroad, the host often offers a lovely but awkward gift — say, a 20 lb coffee table book on the history of their city. So I ask them to mail it. No more. www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025...

Postal services around the world suspend deliveries to US: how will it affect you?

Suspensions including from Australia and Europe come after Donald Trump removed a rule exempting parcels worth less than US$800 from his tariffs

www.theguardian.com

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Ted Loch-Temzelides @tedloch.bsky.social · Aug 18

An op-ed from the world’s most distinguished active mathematician

I’m an award-winning mathematician. Trump just cut my funding.

The “Mozart of Math” tried to stay out of politics. Then it came for his research.

newsletter.ofthebrave.org

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Al Roth @alroth.bsky.social · Aug 13

JAMA reports on the latest estimates of COVID vaccine effectiveness
“COVID-19 vaccinations averted 2.5 million deaths during 2020-2024… but this benefit was mostly limited to a minority of the population of older individuals."
#vaccine #covid #medicine
marketdesigner.blogspot.com/2025/08/covi...

Covid vaccines saved millions of lives, mostly of older people

marketdesigner.blogspot.com

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Justin Wolfers @justinwolfers.bsky.social · Aug 11

Trump's nominee for BLS commissioner, EJ Antoni, is disastrously terrible. He's a 1200%, 1300% maybe 1400% in-the-tank Trumper, with few credentials beyond a history of misrepresenting or misunderstanding economic statistics. He has shown no commitment to truth
www.washingtonpost.com/business/202...

www.washingtonpost.com

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Justin Wolfers @justinwolfers.bsky.social · Aug 12

Let's focus on qualifications: Antoni finished grad school 5 years ago at Northern Illinois with no distinction. Dissertation: No focus on labor or data collection. Zero publications. One lifetime citation (by a former colleague).

This record would not earn you a job as junior economist at BLS.

Justin Wolfers @justinwolfers.bsky.social · Aug 11

Trump's nominee for BLS commissioner, EJ Antoni, is disastrously terrible. He's a 1200%, 1300% maybe 1400% in-the-tank Trumper, with few credentials beyond a history of misrepresenting or misunderstanding economic statistics. He has shown no commitment to truth
www.washingtonpost.com/business/202...

www.washingtonpost.com

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Carl T. Bergstrom @carlbergstrom.com · Aug 12

1. "'Trusting the experts is not a feature of either a science or democracy," Kennedy said."

It's literally a vital feature of both science and of representative democracy.

I've written a fair bit about trust in expertise as a vital mechanism in the collective epistemology of science.

RFK Jr. in interview with Scripps News: ‘Trusting the experts is not science’

HHS Secretary RFK Jr. sat down with Scripps News for a wide-ranging interview, discussing mRNA vaccine funding policy changes and a recent shooting at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

www.scrippsnews.com

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Ted Loch-Temzelides @tedloch.bsky.social · Aug 8

Congrats, Noah!

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Carl T. Bergstrom @carlbergstrom.com · Aug 8

1. Federal funding for research promotes tech, biomedical, and scientific discovery in the US, and provides training for the sci/tech workforce that has brought immeasurable wealth to the US over the past 75 years.

Today's executive order includes a provision that will obliterate both functions.

Improving Oversight of Federal Grantmaking

By the authority vested in me as President by the Constitution and the laws of the United States of America, and to improve the process of Federal

www.whitehouse.gov

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Katie Mack @astrokatie.com · Aug 5

Every reputable expert I know considers mRNA vaccine technology to be one of the most revolutionary advances in medicine in our lifetimes. Its inventors won the Nobel Prize in 2023. Shutting it down now is pointless self-harm to humanity.

Eric Michael Garcia @ericmgarcia.bsky.social · Aug 5

Release from HHS: HHS will wind down its development of the mRNA vaccine development activities under the Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Authority (BARDA).

HHS Winds Down mRNA Vaccine Development Under BARDA

WASHINGTON, DC—AUGUST 5, 2025—The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) today announced the beginning of a coordinated wind-down of its mRNA vaccine development activities under the Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Authority (BARDA), including the cancellation and de-scoping of various contracts and solicitations. The decision follows a comprehensive review of mRNA-related investments initiated during the COVID-19 public health emergency.

“We reviewed the science, listened to the experts, and acted,” said HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. “BARDA is terminating 22 mRNA vaccine development investments because the data show these vaccines fail to protect effectively against upper respiratory infections like COVID and flu. We’re shifting that funding toward safer, broader vaccine platforms that remain effective even as viruses mutate.”

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Carl T. Bergstrom @carlbergstrom.com · Aug 6

RFK Jr and his GOP enablers are determined to undermine safe, effective mRNA vaccine technology that offers our best defense against future pandemics.

RFK Jr. pulls $500 million in funding for vaccine development

The Department of Health and Human Services plans to cancel contracts and pull funding for some vaccines being developed to fight respiratory viruses like COVID-19 and the flu.

apnews.com

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Ted Loch-Temzelides @tedloch.bsky.social · Aug 2

US universities missed a great chance to effectively fight all this when they chose to go for individual deals as opposed to hold a single unified line. Any university (or country for that matter) alone is bound to be in a weak bargaining position against a hostile US government.

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Nicholas A. Christakis @nachristakis.bsky.social · Aug 2

Only a flop nation fails to support its brilliant, world-leading mathematicians.

Sung Kim @sungkim.bsky.social · Aug 2

Terence Tao has written a thread about the damage being caused by the grant freezes at UCLA.

mathstodon.xyz/@tao/1149568...

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George Conway 👊🇺🇸🔥 @gtconway.bsky.social · Aug 1

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Justin Wolfers @justinwolfers.bsky.social · Aug 1

Firing the BLS Commissioner — the wonk in charge of the statisticians who track economic reality — is an authoritarian four alarm fire.

It will also backfire: You can't bend economic reality, but you can break the trust of markets. And biased data yields worse policy.

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Ted Loch-Temzelides @tedloch.bsky.social · Aug 1

Unbelievable…

Dan Garisto @dangaristo.bsky.social · Jul 31

For the math folks on here: NSF has suspended Terry Tao's grant. www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/...

NSF Award Search: Award # 2347850

Structure theory for measure-preserving systems, additive combinatorics, and correlations of multiplicative functions

www.nsf.gov

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Liz Essley Whyte @lizessleywhyte.bsky.social · Jul 29

NEW
The White House is blocking the NIH from awarding new research grants for the rest of the fiscal year

Chokes off billions in research funding

Gift link www.wsj.com/politics/pol... with @nidhisubs.bsky.social

Trump Administration Puts New Chokehold on Billions in Health-Research Funding

The National Institutes of Health can’t award grants to outside researchers under a new White House restriction.

www.wsj.com

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