Lightnews — Scholar-powered news

Uku Vainik @ukuvainik.bsky.social · 9h

I rarely delete anything, apart from spam. This is my history! Although, Outlook is quite poor at finding anything I need😭

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Uku Vainik @ukuvainik.bsky.social · 1d

Not to be missed!

Julia M. Rohrer @dingdingpeng.the100.ci · 2d

Happy to announce that I'll give a talk on how we can make rigorous causal inference more mainstream 📈

You can sign up for the Zoom link here: tinyurl.com/CIIG-JuliaRo...

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Reposted by Uku Vainik

Reactor Magazine @reactorsff.bsky.social · 1d

MOOMIN MOVIE INCOMING this is not a drill!!!!

reactormag.com/rebecca-suga...

A Moomin Movie Is Coming From Steven Universe’s Rebecca Sugar - Reactor

In a just world there would be more Moomin movies than Marvel movies.

reactormag.com

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Reposted by Uku Vainik

David Baranger @davidbaranger.bsky.social · 21d

𝐀𝐝𝐝𝐢𝐭𝐢𝐯𝐞 𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐈𝐧𝐭𝐞𝐫𝐚𝐜𝐭𝐢𝐯𝐞 𝐑𝐞𝐥𝐚𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧𝐬𝐨𝐟 𝐏𝐞𝐫𝐬𝐨𝐧𝐚𝐥𝐢𝐭𝐲 𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐂𝐨𝐠𝐧𝐢𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧 𝐖𝐢𝐭𝐡𝐄𝐱𝐭𝐞𝐫𝐧𝐚𝐥𝐢𝐳𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐁𝐞𝐡𝐚𝐯𝐢𝐨𝐫𝐬 | "Although interaction effects were detected, they were small and practically negligible in their explanation of variance in externalizing behaviors" journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/...

Additive and Interactive Relations of Personality and Cognition With Externalizing Behaviors - Nathaniel L. Phillips, Nathan T. Carter, Kevin M. King, Courtland S. Hyatt, Max M. Owens, Donald R. Lynam...

Personality and cognition offer robust frameworks to understand the individual differences associated with externalizing behaviors. However, these literatures h...

journals.sagepub.com

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Reposted by Uku Vainik

Hampton Gaddy @hggaddy.bsky.social · 2d

🚨 The Economist has been telling you for years that polygamy causes civil war by locking men out of marriage. A new article with @rebeccasear.bsky.social and @anthrolog.bsky.social explains that the demography of marriage markets doesn't actually work that way. 🧵

www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/...

High rates of polygyny do not lock large proportions of men out of the marriage market | PNAS

There is a widespread belief, in both the scholarly literature and the popular press, that polygyny prevents large numbers of men from marrying by ...

www.pnas.org

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Reposted by Uku Vainik

profserious @profserious.bsky.social · 3d

Here are your 10 -essential- AI prompts for academics ... make your life easy with help from @profserious.bsky.social profserious.substack.com/p/10-ai-prom...

10 AI Prompts for Academics

making those hard jobs a little easier ...

profserious.substack.com

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Reposted by Uku Vainik

Eivind Ystrom @eivindy.bsky.social · 3d

Two birds of a gene - catch Matt Keller's webinar at @uio.no on October 15th. Please share
www.sv.uio.no/promenta/eng...
@ispg.bsky.social @behaviorgenetic.bsky.social @unioslo-svfak.bsky.social @essgn.bsky.social @ibg.colorado.edu

Using structural equation models to estimate direct and indirect genetic effects and assortative mating in trio data - PROMENTA

Guest lecture by Matt Keller

www.sv.uio.no

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Reposted by Uku Vainik

Simon Fisher @profsimonfisher.bsky.social · 4d

Twenty-four years ago today, our paper “A forkhead-domain gene is mutated in a severe speech and language disorder” was published: www.nature.com/articles/350....
A personal thread about the ups & downs of the journey we took to get to that point....1/n
🗣️🧬🧪

Image shows the first two printed pages of the paper “A forkhead-domain gene is mutated in a severe speech and language disorder” by Cecilia Lai and colleagues, published in Nature in 2001 (volume 413, pages 519-523). The abstract reads as follows:
Individuals affected with developmental disorders of speech and language have substantial difficulty acquiring expressive and/or receptive language in the absence of any profound sensory or neurological impairment and despite adequate intelligence and opportunity. Although studies of twins consistently indicate that a significant genetic component is involved, most families segregating speech and language deficits show complex patterns of inheritance, and a gene that predisposes individuals to such disorders has not been identified. We have studied a unique three-generation pedigree, KE, in which a severe speech and language disorder is transmitted as an autosomal-dominant monogenic trait. Our previous work mapped the locus responsible, SPCH1, to a 5.6-cM interval of region 7q31 on chromosome 7. We also identified an unrelated individual, CS, in whom speech and language impairment is associated with a chromosomal translocation involving the SPCH1 interval. Here we show that the gene FOXP2, which encodes a putative transcription factor containing a polyglutamine tract and a forkhead DNA-binding domain, is directly disrupted by the translocation breakpoint in CS. In addition, we identify a point mutation in affected members of the KE family that alters an invariant amino-acid residue in the forkhead domain. Our findings suggest that FOXP2 is involved in the developmental process that culminates in speech and language.

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Reposted by Uku Vainik

The Conversation U.S. @us.theconversation.com · 4d

Young children are capable of finding systematic solutions to complex problems without any instruction, contradicting long-held assumptions about cognitive development, according to a psychologist
buff.ly/226VzMZ 🧪

Children can be systematic problem-solvers at younger ages than psychologists had thought – new research

By cranking up the difficulty on the test task, researchers found that children are capable of finding systematic solutions to complex problems far earlier than psychologists had believed.

buff.ly

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Reposted by Uku Vainik

Eric Topol @erictopol.bsky.social · 6d

Evidence keeps accumulating for the environmental toxin exposure link to Parkinson's disease, beyond pesticides. Today on trichloroethylene (TCE), used in dry cleaning
www.neurology.org/doi/10.1212/...

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Reposted by Uku Vainik

Elliot Tucker-Drob @tuckerdrob.bsky.social · 6d

Non-paywalled link to my commentary on @vw1234.bsky.social and colleagues new paper in @nature.com rdcu.be/eI2NG

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Reposted by Uku Vainik

Shai Carmi @shaicarmi.bsky.social · 6d

There is a lot of hype around this new paper. It's a great advance, but it will never result in the birth of a healthy baby. The reason is that in this method, chrs that end up in the egg are a random sample of the 46 somatic chrs,
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www.bbc.com/news/article...

Human skin DNA fertilised to make embryo for first time

US scientists testing the technique say it could help people overcome infertility and potentially allow same-sex couples to have a genetically related child.

www.bbc.com

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Reposted by Uku Vainik

Elena Shekhova, PhD @lumipie.com · 7d

🧪🍎📃
It only took me 500 years to finish this 📊, but here it is 🎉

Grocery shops in many wealthy countries are oversupplied with animal-based foods. They stock far more meat and dairy than we need for human and planetary health.

🔗 www.lumipie.com/data-vis/pla...

Data visualization comparing national food supplies in high-income countries (based on GDP per capita) with planetary health intake targets. Radial charts for 12 countries (including Ireland, Denmark, Switzerland, Luxembourg, United States, Australia, Norway, Qatar, Kuwait, Emirates, Taiwan, and Saudi Arabia) show that supplies of animal-based foods, especially meat and dairy, consistently exceed recommended levels of intake. Bars below each chart compare grams of plant-based, animal-based, and fats & oils in total daily supply per person. Data is from FAOSTAT (2022)

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Reposted by Uku Vainik

SSIBsociety @ssibsociety.bsky.social · 8d

Another paper from the SSIB special issue:

sciencedirect.com/science/arti...

Bariatric Surgery & Alcohol Use Disorder

Recent findings reveal a concerning trend: alcohol intake and alcohol use disorder (AUD) increase significantly within two years following bariatric procedures.

Increased alcohol intake and alcohol use disorder following bariatric surgery: potential mechanisms

Sleeve gastrectomy (SG) and Roux-en-Y gastric bypass (RYGB) are the most effective weight loss procedures for severe obesity. However, there is recent…

sciencedirect.com

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Reposted by Uku Vainik

Tamkinat Rauf @tsrauf.bsky.social · 9d

Life satisfaction mostly declines with age. Previous findings (esp. the famous U-shaped age-SWB trajectory) were artifacts of misspecified models. doi.org/10.1093/esr/...

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Reposted by Uku Vainik

Andrea Ganna @andganna.bsky.social · 8d

🧬💥 Do the genetics that make you develop a disease also help you survive it? Not much.

Our new study in Nature Genetics including 9 disease and 7 biobanks shows:

• Susceptibility variants ≠ survival
• PRSs for onset weak at predicting progression
• Lifespan PRS predicts survival better

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Reposted by Uku Vainik

René Mõttus @renemottus.bsky.social · 8d

Early career personality researchers coming to the Edinburgh ECP22: If you want to get a link to a slightly more affordable uni accommodation option later this year, leave your email here:
docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1F...

Advance Accommodation Information

Primarily for Early Career Researchers (PhD, post-doc): If you would like to receive advance information about a limited number of more affordable accommodation options available for the 22nd Europea...

docs.google.com

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Reposted by Uku Vainik

Health Psychology Review @healthpsychrev.bsky.social · 9d

New open access review of 100 studies (18k+ participants): Stress in daily life is mostly self-reported, rarely physiological. Findings are mixed: stress links to both healthier & unhealthier behaviours. Standardised measures & better study quality are needed.

Full text here: doi.org/p49j

Screenshot of the first page of the article. Title: Assessment of stress and its relationship with health behaviour in daily life: a systematic review

Also includes authors and abstract.

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Reposted by Uku Vainik

Eric Topol @erictopol.bsky.social · 10d

More than 2 decades since GLP-1 drugs were introduced, we still don't know why people with diabetes lose about half as much weight as those without diabetes at the same dose
nature.com/articles/s41...

Effects of tirzepatide on weight management in patients with and without diabetes: a systematic review and meta-analysis - International Journal of Obesity

International Journal of Obesity - Effects of tirzepatide on weight management in patients with and without diabetes: a systematic review and meta-analysis

nature.com

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Reposted by Uku Vainik

c0nc0rdance @c0nc0rdance.bsky.social · 10d

This isn't a mouse🐭.

It's a 'MONITO DEL MONTE' ("little monkey of the mountain") & it's a marsupial that lives in Patagonia at the southern end of South America.

It's also the key to a 50-million year old mystery: why are almost all marsupials in Australia & the Americas?

(📷: José Luis Bartheld)

It looks like a light brown mouse with white belly and dark eyes, slightly ringed like a raccoon with the nose of a possum.
"The monito del monte (Dromiciops gliroides) is an marsupial native to Argentina and Chile that may be more closely related to Australian marsupials than other South American marsupials."
CREDIT: José Luis Bartheld from Valdivia, Chile

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Reposted by Uku Vainik

Frank Harrell @f2harrell.bsky.social · 11d

I am sickened that journals are still letting authors compute change from baseline in parallel group studies. hbiostat.org/bbr/change

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Reposted by Uku Vainik

René Mõttus @renemottus.bsky.social · 11d

Personality change people: does it make sense to think that to change a broader trait domain (neuroticism, agreeableness, conscientiousness) one could consider starting with those facets/nuances that are furthest from the desired levels?
(Most room for change?)

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Reposted by Uku Vainik

George Davey Smith @mendelrandom.bsky.social · 12d

Great to have @markmccarthy985.bsky.social at @uob-ieu.bsky.social giving a seminar tomorrow (Friday) at 12.30 online or in person www.bristol.ac.uk/integrative-...

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Reposted by Uku Vainik

Siri Leknes @sirileknes.bsky.social · 14d

Please RT
2 new positions in the lab as postdoc & PhD!

Interested in stress, pain, or reward? This project has it all!

We are a friendly but ambitious group. Oslo is a capital city on the fjord & bordered by forest, great urban & outdoors opportunities: 💃 ⛷️ 🚣 🎭 🎶

www.jobbnorge.no/en/available...

Postdoctoral Research Fellowship (286516) | University of Oslo

Job title: Postdoctoral Research Fellowship (286516), Employer: University of Oslo, Deadline: Wednesday, October 15, 2025

www.jobbnorge.no

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Reposted by Uku Vainik

Nature Reviews Endocrinology @natrevendo.nature.com · 14d

ICYMI: New content online: Negative effects of ultra-processed foods beyond increasing calories

Negative effects of ultra-processed foods beyond increasing calories

Nature Reviews Endocrinology, Published online: 22 September 2025; doi:10.1038/s41574-025-01189-7Negative effects of ultra-processed foods beyond increasing calories

www.nature.com

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