Lightnews — Scholar-powered news

Reposted by Ilias Foskolos

Chris Mull @cgmull.bsky.social · 6d

New paper led by @seaprinceaaron.bsky.social in @currentbiology.bsky.social looking at the threats deep sea mining poses for sharks, rays, and chimaeras. We found 30 species are threatened via various pathways including collector impact and plumes at depth and pelagic discharge plumes.

Figure 1: highlighting various pathways through which mining can impact sharks, rays, and chimaeras including collector impact and plumes, and discharge plumes.

Figure 2: The diversity of sharks, rays, and chimaeras impacted by deep sea mining operations. Nearly 2/3 of these species are already at an elevated risk of extinction.

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Danai Papageorgiou @danaipapageorgiou.bsky.social · 7d

This list can really assist peers in avoiding predatory publishers:

www.predatoryjournals.org @predatoryjournals.org

I have been receiving plenty of generic emails to join editorial boards in MDPI and Frontiers. At exactly the same time, friends receive the same generic emails..

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

lnkd.in

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Nature @nature.com · 10d

Papers from research teams with a substantial number of beginners are highly disruptive and innovative

go.nature.com/4nrEvqg

Rookie scientists make research teams more innovative

Papers from research teams with a substantial number of beginners are highly disruptive and innovative, study shows.

go.nature.com

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Ilias Foskolos @theclickitclick.bsky.social · 19d

Check out also the press-release of our latest paper in @consletters.bsky.social:

#hector'sdolphins #toothedwhales #newzealand #aotearoa #zoology #biologging #bioacoustics #conservation

Hidden world of Hector's dolphin: watch, listen - The University of Auckland

Tracking devices enable scientists to reconstruct the underwater life of the Hector's dolphin.

www.auckland.ac.nz

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Ilias Foskolos @theclickitclick.bsky.social · 19d

Can Hector's dolphins 🐬 behave in ways that expose them in a higher bycatch risk?

@consletters.bsky.social @rconstantine.bsky.social
@aucklanduni.bsky.social @docgovtnz.bsky.social

#hector'sdolphins #toothedwhales #newzealand #aotearoa #zoology #biologging #bioacoustics #conservation

Subsurface Behaviors of Hector's Dolphins Could Increase Their Risk of Bycatch

Hector's dolphins, endemic to New Zealand, suffer from bycatch in fishing gear. Fishing restrictions in inshore areas have reduced bycatch, although dolphins have been recorded outside these areas. W....

conbio.onlinelibrary.wiley.com

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Oxford Biology @biology.ox.ac.uk · 24d

Oxford Biology is growing 📢

We’re appointing 3 Associate Professors in:
🌱 Plant Sciences
🦉 Animal Behaviour
🔬 Molecular Cell Biology

3 fields. 3 opportunities. One new home for Oxford Biology.

Learn more 👉 bit.ly/41S2Tc7
Apply now 👉 bit.ly/488CNW3

Photo showing the inside atrium of the new Life and Mind Building

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Marine Mammal Research at Aarhus University, Ecoscience @marinemammalsau.bsky.social · Sep 8

Our recent study in the #MarineEcologyProgressSeries
highlights how body size, condition, and human impacts shape the survival of right whales & why they are so vulnerable to prey limitation and disturbance 🐋

🔗 in thread

#Conservation #WhaleResearch #RightWhales #OceanHealth #MarineScience 🌐🌏🧪🌱

📸 Southern right whale: Fredrik Christiansen, Aarhus University
📸 North Atlantic right whale: Center for Coastal Studies, taken under NOAA permit #24359
👉 Link to paper: https://www.int-res.com/abstracts/meps/v768/meps14914

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Aliki Chapple @commonmugwort.bsky.social · Sep 5

“The scandal has also pulled back the curtain to reveal how power in Greece operates.”

It’s not often an accurate description of Greece appears in the international media. Thank you, @alexclapp.bsky.social.

It’s the big fat Greek farming scandal – devised by the political elite and paid for by ordinary people | Alexander Clapp

A massive EU subsidy scandal has pulled back the curtain to reveal how power operates in Greece, says journalist Alexander Clapp

www.theguardian.com

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Nature @nature.com · Sep 3

A common type of ant in Europe breaks a fundamental rule in biology: its queens can produce male offspring that are a whole different species

go.nature.com/4mOb5T9

‘Almost unimaginable’: these ants are different species but share a mother

Ant queens of one species clone ants of another to create hybrid workers that do their bidding.

go.nature.com

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Journal of Experimental Biology @jexpbiol.bsky.social · Sep 1

Issue 16 has closed & issue 17 is open

journals.biologists.com/jeb/issue/22...

The front cover by Kaloyana Koseva shows a bag hanging from its feet with forelimbs down. Laura Stidsholt reviews how bat-borne devices are revolutionising research into bat echolocation & behaviour

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Giorgos Lialios @lialios.bsky.social · Aug 20

Μετά απο μια δεκαετή προσπάθεια, οι ψαράδες της Αμοργού επιτέλους πέτυχαν αυτό που ζητούσαν: να τεθούν χρονικοί και χωρικοί περιορισμοί στην αλιεία στο νησί. Η απόφαση μετατρέπει την Αμοργό σε παράδειγμα για το Αιγαίο και τη Μεσόγειο- αρκεί να εφαρμοστεί σωστά.

Η Αμοργός βάζει φρένο στο ψάρεμα για πέντε χρόνια

Η πρωτοβουλία ανήκει στους αλιείς του νησιού, οι οποίοι επιθυμούν να τεθούν περιορισμοί για να ανακάμψουν οι πληθυσμοί των ψαριών – Κρίσιμη η περιφρούρηση.

www.kathimerini.gr

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Colton the fish squeezer🐟🪴📚🏕️🐝 @fishsqueezer.bsky.social · Aug 18

Hahaha, I love this photo of a snake nerd researcher from the Phoenix Herpetological Society using a fake leg to step on rattlesnakes & see how likely they are to bite. He "stepped" on 175 of them, and was bitten by only SIX. Snakes desperately want to just get away! 🐍🧪

www.npr.org/2024/05/17/1...

A guy out in the desert scrub who looks like Napoleon Dynamite uses a jeans-wrapped pole with a hiking boot on the bottom to "step" on a rattlesnake.

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AU Bioacoustics @bioacousticsau.bsky.social · Aug 13

Breaking News 🚨: Our #bioacoustics 🔉🐬🦇lab seeks a permanent new colleague in a tenure-track assistant professor 🥷position. Excited? Then join our vibrant group of 15 researchers, postdocs and PhD students at AU who work with #marinemammal #acoustics, #conservation #physiology and #effectsofnoise!

Tenure-track Assistant Professor in Bioacoustic Physiology - Ledig stilling på Aarhus Universitet

Ledig stilling ved Institut for Biologi - Zoofysiologi, Aarhus Universitet

www.au.dk

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Mirjam Knörnschild @berlinbatlab.bsky.social · Aug 10

New paper out!
We found that in pipistrelle bats, social vocalizations carry a stronger phylogenetic signal than echolocation calls, suggesting the former evolve more slowly, while the latter remains flexible and shaped by the environment.
www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...

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Claudia Wascher @wascherclaudia.bsky.social · Jun 17

Originally posted on Twitter in 2023—reposting after a chat with a colleague about possibly publishing in an MDPI journal (whose review practices are similar to Frontiers). Not sure if either has since addressed the issues raised, but I feel process should be public knowledge.

Tweet from 2023 saying: 'I resigned as an Associate Editor for a Frontiers journal because of the way their automated system took away much of my editorial autonomy. some details that might also explain odd reviewer/author experiences:'
(1/7)

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Adam Markham @adammarkham.bsky.social · Jun 15

From the Smithsonian Migratory Bird Center. Apart from the overwhelmingly largest cause of population declines - habitat loss and destruction - what are the other big killers of birds? A reason to consider keeping cats inside.🪶🌎

A chart showing that cats kill around 2.6 billion birds annually in North America, compared to 624 million killed hitting windows, 214m by cars and 64m by collisions with industrial installations (e.g. wind turbines, factories, lighthouses, communication towers, etc). Graphic from the Smithsonian Migratory Bird Center.

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Ted Pavlic (he/him/his) @tedpavlic.bsky.social · Jun 8

Reminder: Nobel-prize winning PCR (1983), used in basically all genetic tech today, was only possible because of extremophile bacterium discovered in 1964 in Yellowstone funded by a small ~$80k NSF grant with no obvious application at the time. #science 🧪
www.richmondscientific.com/how-a-discov...

How a discovery in Yellowstone National Park led to the development of PCR - Richmond Scientific

A discovery in Yellowstone National Park led to the development of PCR, the gold-standard COVID-19 tests used to fight the global pandemic.

www.richmondscientific.com

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Dr Luis Huckstadt @luishuckstadt.bsky.social · Jun 8

We can do great things when we are working together...
🦭🐋🦈🐻‍❄️🐟🐧🦢*🐢*

Global tracking of marine megafauna space use reveals how to achieve conservation targets | Science www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...

Global tracking of marine megafauna space use reveals how to achieve conservation targets

The recent Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework (GBF) sets ambitious goals but no clear pathway for how zero loss of important biodiversity areas and halting human-induced extinction of thre...

www.science.org

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SMRU Consulting @smruc.bsky.social · Jun 5

New output from the ONR/LMR-funded #ACCURATE project by @popigk.bsky.social in @asa-news.bsky.social

#passiveacoustics #densityestimation #beampattern #biosonar

@uniofstandrews.bsky.social @seamammalresearch.bsky.social
@au.dk #CREEM #JASA

doi.org/10.1121/10.0...

Sensitivity of density estimates to off-axis beam pattern assumptions in deep-diving odontocetes

Density estimation from passive acoustic monitoring requires knowledge of the sound production rates and signal characteristics of animal calls. This study expl

doi.org

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The New Yorker @newyorker.com · May 25

Academic freedom in the United States has found itself periodically under siege, but the current attacks from the federal government raise a new level of alarm. nyer.cm/u405qvQ

“I’ve studied McCarthyism’s impact on higher education for 50 years. What’s happening now is worse.” -Ellen Schrecker, historian

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Ecology of Animal Societies @livingingroups.bsky.social · May 19

Humans have many unusual traditions. But did you know animals’ strange behaviors can become culture too? Out now in Current Biology (doi.org/10.1016/j.cu...) we show the rise and spread of a surprising tradition: interspecies infant abduction. Interactive timeline (www.ab.mpg.de/671374) 🧵 (1/12)

An illustration of a white-faced capuchin monkey carrying a howler infant on their back while cracking nuts with a stone

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Danai Papageorgiou @danaipapageorgiou.bsky.social · May 7

This is very interesting... When I was starting my PhD in 2016, amidst the peak of the financial crisis in Greece and while abroad, I often heard that we (Greeks) are lazy, enjoy the sun, and that is why there was a crisis...

Simon Kuestenmacher @simongerman600.bsky.social · May 7

The average Turk works ten hours more every week than the average Dutch. In the Netherlands a huge service economy grants its workers shorter working hours whereas an agricultural and industrial workforce in Türkiye has to put in longer hours for much lower pay.

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Christina Belanger, Ph.D @belaforams.bsky.social · May 6

Data are everywhere…

“Here, we examine an unusual source of information: classic Chinese poetry. From 724 ancient poems containing references to the Yangtze finless porpoise (N. asiaeorientalis), we infer that the range of this subspecies has contracted by at least 65% over the past 1400 years.”

Current Biology @currentbiology.bsky.social · May 5

Dive into our latest issue!🌊
www.cell.com/issue/S0960-...

On the cover:Yangtze porpoises in troubled waters🐬 by Yaoyao Zhang and colleagues www.cell.com/current-biol...

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Auke-Florian 🪹 @aukeflorian.nl · Apr 9

NEW PAPER, JUST OUT! 👀

Insects from the '70s and '80s were already collecting microplastic, decades before the term microplastic even existed. 🤯

A thread on the surprising history of this pollutant and the incredible insect larvae that helped us uncover it. 🐛

Let's dive in! 🧵👇 1/x

Lead author Auke-Florian Hiemstra holds the oldest known caddisfly casing containing microplastic, dating to 1971. Photo: Liselotte Rambonnet.

A caddisfly casing with pieces of blue microplastic, dating 1986. Photo: Auke-Florian Hiemstra

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Whale Scientists @whalescientists.bsky.social · Apr 7

Scientists have assembled the first high-quality genomes of New Zealand’s Hector’s + critically endangered Māui dolphins using degraded DNA—an unprecedented breakthrough that offers insights for conservation and a new path forward for endangered species worldwide.
whalescientists.com/new-zealand-...

New Genome Assembly Approach Unlocks Secrets of Critically Endangered Dolphins in New Zealand

Despite working with degraded DNA, scientists assembled high-quality genomes of New Zealand's dolphins, with insights for conservation.

whalescientists.com

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