Lightnews — Scholar-powered news

Tom Howarth @tomhowarth.bsky.social · 7h

Congratulations to Prof Omar Yaghi and his colleagues on winning the Nobel Prize in Chemistry for their pioneering work on world-changing materials. 🧪

I caught up with Prof Yaghi a few weeks ago to chat all about his work. You can listen to our conversation below:
pod.link/1296673906/e...

pod.link

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Tom Howarth @tomhowarth.bsky.social · 8h

This trend really makes the world seem weird... but not so bad. 🧁

www.washingtonpost.com/world/2025/1...

Germans meet up to eat pudding with forks — and the trend goes global

The trend, called “Pudding mit Gabel,” has taken off on German social media, and now has crossed the Atlantic.

www.washingtonpost.com

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Tom Howarth @tomhowarth.bsky.social · 5d

Co-first author Dr Rebecca Andrews:
“This is the first time we've been able to look at oligomers directly in human brain tissue at this scale: It’s like being able to see stars in broad daylight”

🧪

www.sciencefocus.com/news/hidden-...

The hidden trigger behind Parkinson’s has finally been spotted | BBC Science Focus Magazine

The findings mark a major advancement in our understanding of the world’s fastest-growing neurological disease

www.sciencefocus.com

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Reposted by Tom Howarth

ESO @eso.org · 6d

🆕 Our VLT finds a rogue planet growing at record rate: six billion tonnes a second!

This is the strongest growth rate ever recorded for a planet of any kind, providing insights into how rogue planets form&grow: https://f.mtr.cool/pvyxnsjnfx

🔭 🧪 ☄️
#exoplanets
Illustration ESO/L. Calçada

A digital illustration of a planet surrounded by a flat gaseous disc, in bright orange tones. In the central parts of the disc, material is flowing from the disc onto the planet along arched trajectories above and below the plane of the disc.

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Tom Howarth @tomhowarth.bsky.social · 9d

Useful explainer

www.nature.com/articles/d41...

Why is autism really on the rise? What the science says

As Trump blames Tylenol, Nature looks into the decades of research on the causes of autism.

www.nature.com

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Tom Howarth @tomhowarth.bsky.social · 13d

Long distance ultra runners may be at greater risk of colon cancer. 🧪 🏃

Emphasis on the 'may' here - findings are very preliminary and only based on a small group.

Could be to do with blood flow away from digestive system...

NB: running is still super healthy
www.sciencefocus.com/news/ultra-r...

Long-distance runners may face higher colon cancer risk, early findings suggest | BBC Science Focus Magazine

A new study has raised questions about the link between extreme endurance running and colorectal cancer

www.sciencefocus.com

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Tom Howarth @tomhowarth.bsky.social · 16d

Pepe

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Tom Howarth @tomhowarth.bsky.social · 16d

My pet tortoise, Pepe, approves this message. 🐢 🧪

➼ 'Long dismissed as unintelligent, reptiles are emerging as cognitively and emotionally complex animals. A new study involving tortoises suggests that they also possess mood states.'

www.nytimes.com/2025/09/18/s...

Do Reptiles Have Moods, Too?

www.nytimes.com

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Tom Howarth @tomhowarth.bsky.social · 20d

6,000 and counting 🧪

The number is somewhat arbitrary, but it's impressive how far we've come in 3 decades since the first exoplanet discovery.

We'll no doubt be at 10,000 in a couple of years, tops.

www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/nasas-t...

NASA’s Tally of Planets Outside Our Solar System Reaches 6,000

The milestone highlights the accelerating rate of discoveries, just over three decades since the first exoplanets were found.

www.jpl.nasa.gov

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Reposted by Tom Howarth

Andrea Thompson @andreatweather.bsky.social · 21d

Congratulations, you've just lived through the three hottest summers on record 🫠

But with greenhouse gas emissions still piling up in the atmosphere, those records probably won't stand for terribly long. 🧪

(graphic by @unamandita.bsky.social)

We’ve Lived through the Three Hottest Summers on Record

Climate-fueled heat has caused thousands of excess deaths over the past three summers, which were the three hottest on record

www.scientificamerican.com

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Tom Howarth @tomhowarth.bsky.social · 22d

Ch-ch-changes 🧪

www.youtube.com/watch?v=7P04...

New images of M87's black hole show its changing magnetic field

YouTube video by ESO Chasing Starlight

www.youtube.com

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Reposted by Tom Howarth

ESO @eso.org · 23d

1/ A rising telescope under a rising Sun and Moon! 🔭☀️🌕

This montage is a kaleidoscope of moments from the construction of our Extremely Large Telescope.

Creating this #ELT collage took Boris Häußler, an ESO astronomer in Chile, years of meticulous planning.

The image shows seven hexagonal images put together like a flower. All the images show the Extremely Large Telescope (ELT) in front of an orange sun or moon rise. All the hexagons are dated and show the ELT assembly at the specific date.

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Tom Howarth @tomhowarth.bsky.social · Sep 4

Artificial sweeteners linked with cognitive decline. 🧪

Curiously, the association was only found in people under 60, not those older.

~ 1 can of diet soda a day was equal to 1.6 years of brain ageing over the study period. 🧠
www.sciencefocus.com/news/artific...

Artificial sweeteners may speed up brain ageing, study claims | BBC Science Focus Magazine

Your diet soda could come with a side of unwanted health risks.

www.sciencefocus.com

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Tom Howarth @tomhowarth.bsky.social · Sep 2

For those more visually inclined, here's pretty much everything you need to know about US CO2 emissions, in charts. 📈 📊

theconversation.com/where-americ...

Where America’s CO emissions come from – what you need to know, in charts

Carbon dioxide emissions trap heat in the atmosphere, warming the planet. Too much CO2 can disrupt the climate and oceans.

theconversation.com

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Tom Howarth @tomhowarth.bsky.social · Sep 1

Ooo, someone has done an actual study on this.

UK and Chinese researchers analysed 2.6M Bluesky posts referencing 532,000 scientific articles. Posts garnered more attention and tended to be more original (ie, not just copy-paste the link).

www.nature.com/articles/d41...

Research posts on Bluesky are more original — and get better engagement

Bluesky posts about science garner more likes and reposts than similar ones on X.

www.nature.com

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Reposted by Tom Howarth

Zack Labe @zacklabe.com · Aug 31

Meanwhile, back in reality, global ocean heat content just updated through June 2025 and set a new record high. Time to wake up!

Data (anomalies) & methods from www.ncei.noaa.gov/access/globa...

Line graph time series of global ocean heat content for the 0-2000 m layer for 3 year averages, yearly averages, and five years averages from the late 1950s to 2025. There is a long-term warming trend. The baseline is 1955-2006 for the zero reference to calculate the anomalies.

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Tom Howarth @tomhowarth.bsky.social · Aug 29

Say it louder for the people in the back 👏
arstechnica.com/science/2025...

Bluesky now platform of choice for science community

It’s not just you. Survey says: “Twitter sucks now and all the cool kids are moving to Bluesky”…

arstechnica.com

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Tom Howarth @tomhowarth.bsky.social · Aug 28

Cats get dementia too, and it looks a lot like Alzheimer’s in humans 🧪 🐈

This could offer a naturally occurring model to study the disease, as opposed to artificial models induced in rodents.

www.sciencefocus.com/news/cat-dem...

Cats get dementia too. And they might be the key to new human treatments | BBC Science Focus Magazine

New research has found that our feline friends develop dementia in a similar way to human Alzheimer’s Disease, opening the door to further research.

www.sciencefocus.com

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Tom Howarth @tomhowarth.bsky.social · Aug 22

The Trump administration's gutting of science is having serious impacts on climate research in the US. 🧪

Scientists inside NOAA told me they're afraid to even use words like 'climate change' in research proposals now, for fear that they won't get funding. 🌎

www.sciencefocus.com/news/noaa-ch...

‘It’s just chaos!’: Inside the political unravelling of America’s climate disaster defence system | BBC Science Focus Magazine

Staff at NOAA say verbal orders, travel bans and self-censorship are reshaping the agency from within

www.sciencefocus.com

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Tom Howarth @tomhowarth.bsky.social · Aug 21

Financial institutions funnelled $8.9 trillion into companies driving deforestation last year. 🌳

Vanguard, BlackRock and JPMorgan together provided over $1.6 trillion to companies driving deforestation.

More info on the Forest 500 report here 👇
trellis.net/article/fina...

Finance sector failing to curb deforestation, new report finds | Trellis

$8.9 trillion remains tied to forest-destructive companies.

trellis.net

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Tom Howarth @tomhowarth.bsky.social · Aug 19

A discovery on the Indonesian island of Sulawesi has pushed back the timeline of early human sea crossings and deepened the mystery of who made them. 🧪

“This is by far the earliest known evidence for the presence of early humans on Sulawesi,” Adam Brumm said.
www.sciencefocus.com/news/stone-t...

This tiny stone tool may have just rewritten human history | BBC Science Focus Magazine

A discovery on an Indonesian island has pushed back the timeline of early human sea crossings and deepened the mystery of who made them.

www.sciencefocus.com

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Tom Howarth @tomhowarth.bsky.social · Aug 14

If you're curious about the state of play at the Global Plastics Treaty talks, this is brilliant (and terrifying, and disappointing):

plasticspolicy.port.ac.uk/with-24-hour...

With 24 hours to go, the committee has been clear: Ambition is not up for compromise and attempts by UNEP to deliver a treaty at any cost will not be tolerated - Global Plastics Policy Centre

The Chair's proposed Plastics Treaty text is fiercely rejected just 24 hours before the negotiations end. Sam Winton reports from Geneva.

plasticspolicy.port.ac.uk

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Tom Howarth @tomhowarth.bsky.social · Aug 13

165 sustainable aviation fuel projects announced by airlines over the past 12 years.

Only 10 have reported producing any fuel so far.

www.reuters.com/graphics/AVI...

The airline industry’s dirty secret: Clean jet fuel failures

Reuters found that over 160 sustainable aviation fuel projects have been announced over the past 12 years, but only a small portion have gone ahead.

www.reuters.com

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Tom Howarth @tomhowarth.bsky.social · Aug 11

The Tintina fault, which runs from northeastern British Columbia through to central Alaska, has been quietly accumulating strain for at least 12,000 years. 🧪

Previously thought to be relatively benign, new analysis suggests it’s still very much active.
www.sciencefocus.com/news/tintina...

A massive earthquake could be brewing beneath North America, study suggests | BBC Science Focus Magazine

A long-quiet fault in Canada is building toward a major earthquake. The only problem? No one knows when it will strike.

www.sciencefocus.com

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Tom Howarth @tomhowarth.bsky.social · Aug 7

Over 100 countries have backed a plastic production cap. The US is firmly against it.

Hopefully there will be some way around this impasse. Perhaps an agreement without the US is better than no agreement?

www.reuters.com/sustainabili...

Exclusive: Trump administration memo urges countries to reject plastic production caps in UN Treaty

The United States has sent letters to at least a handful of countries urging them to reject the goal of a global pact that includes limits on plastic production and plastic chemical additives at the start of U.N. plastic treaty talks in Geneva, according to a memo and communications seen by Reuters.

www.reuters.com

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