Lightnews — Scholar-powered news

Reposted by William Brazelton

Physicians for a Healthy Democracy @physiciandemocracy.medsky.social · 15h

@drneilstone.bsky.social

This is an iron lung for polio victims. Remember these? Me neither, it’s now in a museum where it should stay. Why? Because vaccines work.

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Kevin M. Kruse @kevinmkruse.bsky.social · 12h

Bray is a historian at Rutgers who received death threats after landing on Turning Points USA's Professor Watchlist. As a result, he announced he was moving to Europe. And then this happened.

This kind of harassment and abuse of scholars is Charlie Kirk's legacy and it's only getting worse.

Mark Bray @mark-bray.bsky.social · 13h

“Someone” cancelled my family’s flight out of the country at the last second.

We got our boarding passes. We checked our bags. Went through security. Then at our gate our reservation ‘disappeared.’

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Don Moynihan @donmoyn.bsky.social · 23h

The elimination of USAID is a moral atrocity and all involved made a choice to enable, and then lie about, ending the lives of some of the most vulnerable people in the world.

MAE SOT, Thailand (AP) - Mohammed Taher clutched the lifeless body of his 2-year-old son and wept. Ever since his family's food rations stopped arriving at their internment camp in Myanmar in April, the father had watched helplessly as his once-vibrant baby boy weakened, suffering from diarrhea and begging for food.
On May 21, exactly two weeks after Taher's little boy died, U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio sat before Congress and declared: "No one has died" because of his government's decision to gut its foreign aid program. Rubio also insisted: "No children are dying on my watch."
That, Taher says, "is a lie."

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Rosa Lafer-Sousa @rosalafersousa.bsky.social · 1d

Over the weekend ICE abducted an NIH contractor when he showed up to a courthouse for his green card hearing. He is documented. His wife is a citizen.

He is also member of the skeleton crew of animal care staff that works through a shutdown, to ensure the health and wellbeing of research animals.

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Boston Tom Levenson @tomlevenson.bsky.social · 1d

Two things of note in today's announcement of the 2025 Nobel physics prize (besides the work being honored).

1: The US institutional dominance of the prize continues.
2: 2 of the three laureates are immigrants, drawn here decades ago by the then-unmatched opportunities for science here...

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Nobel Prize in Physics Is Awarded for Work in Quantum Mechanics

www.nytimes.com

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William Brazelton @wbrazelton.bsky.social · 2d

My heart goes out to all the Chiefs fans who might have to suffer through a 10-7 season

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Jeremy Berg @jeremymberg.bsky.social · 2d

I have been trying to get this published as an op-ed, but I am going to post it here since I think it is timely in light of the "consent" extortion events.

Deafening Quiet from the Scientific Establishment

jeremymberg.github.io/jeremyberg.g...

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jeremymberg.github.io

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Paul Byrne @theplanetaryguy.bsky.social · 9d

This is what's been going on at NASA since the Trump Administration took over again.

It's every bit as bad as we thought.

SpacePolicyOnline @spacepolicyonline.bsky.social · 9d

Sen. Maria Cantwell (D-WA), top Democrat on Senate Commerce Cmte, is out with a Democratic staff report: "The Destruction of NASA's Mission: Whistleblowers Reveal OMB's Unconstitutional Plot to Gut the Agency."
www.commerce.senate.gov/services/fil...

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David Grinspoon @drfunkyspoon.bsky.social · 9d

“The Destruction of NASA’s Mission” Whistleblowers reveal OMB’s Unconstitutional Plot to Gut the Agency

New from Committee on Commerce, Science, Transportation Ranking Member Maria Cantwell.

NOTE: This is indeed what I have seen going on inside NASA.
🧪🔭

www.commerce.senate.gov/services/fil...

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jamelle @jamellebouie.net · 9d

yeah they're just murdering random people on these boats

Michael Paarlberg @mpaarlberg.bsky.social · 9d

I think the Trump admin assumed no one would try to find out who the people on the boats they blew up really were

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Alex Probst @alexjprobst.bsky.social · 12d

New article on equitable reuse of public sequencing data, published in @natmicrobiol.nature.com!
Led by the Data reuse core team @lhug.bsky.social @environmicrobio.bsky.social Cristina Moraru, @geomicrosoares.bsky.social, @folker.bsky.social and with Anke Heyer and The Data Reuse Consotrium!

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Pamela Ferretti @pamferretti.bsky.social · 12d

If you generate or reuse #microbiome data, check out these guidelines for equitable sequence data reuse. Grateful to @alexjprobst.bsky.social and his team for leading this important work and for bringing together 160+ microbiome scientists (myself included) to contribute!

doi.org/10.1038/s415...

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Alex Crits-Christoph @acritschristoph.bsky.social · 13d

At 88%, it's hard to find a topic that more Americans agree with each other on than the benefits of routine vaccinations. And with 62% for COVID vaccines (while sadly low), that is also something of a supermajority consensus as policies go in American politics

www.pewresearch.org/science/2023...

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Olivia Messer @oliviamesser.bsky.social · 16d

22-year-old Ward Sakeik, a Palestinian woman who has lived in Texas since she was 9, says her experience in federal detainment could only be identified as “human trafficking.” And she’s not staying quiet about the women she was forced to leave behind.

thebarbedwire.com/2025/09/22/w...

She Survived 141 Days in ICE Custody Thanks to a ‘Beautiful Sisterhood.’ Now She’s Fighting for Those Still Inside.

22-year-old Ward Sakeik, a Palestinian woman who has lived in Texas since she was 9, talks about her experience in federal detainment.

thebarbedwire.com

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Alt NIH Bluesky 🧪 @altnih4science.bsky.social · 17d

Today, the New York Times published a long essay glorifying Jay Bhattacharya, the Trump NIH director. What?⁉️

Here’s the explanation:
That essay was written by the editor of a Trumpist Republican journal, funded by a Trumpist org that hates science.
SHAME on the Times. 🧪1/

us. "151 Writing in National Review, the journal's editor Adam Keiper described The New Atlantis as being written from a "particularly American and conservative way of thinking about both the blessings and the burdens of modern science and technology". 61 New Atlantis authors and bioethicists publishing in other journals have also similarly referred to The New Atlantis as being written from a social conservative stance that
utilizes religion. 71181[9][101

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Jeffrey Marlow @jjmarlow.bsky.social · 18d

The BBNJ "High Seas" Treaty has been ratified by 60 countries and is now officially in effect! What a journey it's been... 🎉

www.nytimes.com/2025/09/19/c...

Hard-Fought Treaty to Protect Ocean Life Clears a Final Hurdle

www.nytimes.com

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Liz Neeley @lizneeley.bsky.social · 18d

The High Seas Treaty has been ratified by 60 countries! This is about protecting oceans beyond the coastal zones controlled by single countries. There are still lots of steps between where we are and the future we dream of, but wow, this is a big one!

apnews.com/article/high...

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Harmit Singh Malik @harmitmalik.bsky.social · 19d

Any academic folks on H1B visas (even with stamps in passports) please get legal advice from your University attorneys before leaving the US.

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Laura Sell @laurasell.bsky.social · 20d

"More professors in the United States have been fired for controversial views in the past week than any other week in all of American history."
www.insidehighered.com/opinion/colu...

Censorship Is the Authoritarian’s Dream

The right to free expression must include the right to say horrible and evil things.

www.insidehighered.com

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Nicholas Grossman @nicholasgrossman.bsky.social · 20d

The Third Reich didn't last 1,000 years.

Pinochet was ousted with a referendum.

And the US isn't exactly dealing with the smartest, most competent fascists.

Those of you insisting that 2025 is forever need to read a book, touch grass, go to therapy, anything other than trying to make others quit.

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Beth Orcutt @deepmicrobe.bsky.social · 22d

After a long day of discussing future field work to study #DeepSeaMining, this short documentary was a welcome reminder of the why - there is still so much we don’t know about the deep sea! www.youtube.com/watch?v=1jcm...

Nodules: Deep-Sea Life Giver or Key to Our Energy Future?

YouTube video by Scientific American

www.youtube.com

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Astrobiology @astrobiology.bsky.social · 22d

NASA Astrobiology Program Call for Applications: NASA-DARES Task Force 2
astrobiology.com/2025/09/nasa... #astrobiology #NASA #NASADARES

NASA Astrobiology Program Call for Applications: NASA-DARES Task Force 2 - Astrobiology

The NASA Astrobiology Program is seeking approximately 47 individuals to serve on NASA DARES

astrobiology.com

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David Grinspoon @drfunkyspoon.bsky.social · 24d

"There is nothing new under the sun. But there are new suns." - Octavia Butler
🧪

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Science and Freedom Alliance - SAFA @safa-science.bsky.social · 24d

This is so true for science. Why did the US attract top minds from all over the world to want to study, work, stay, and start companies? Instead of go, say, to Germany, Japan, or China?

In large part because the US was a multicultural, open, pluralistic democracy. People felt comfortable here.

ghost malone ergo propter malone @proptermalone.bsky.social · 24d

we very specifically and over decades had earned a reputation for being a place where you could come and study or work and be treated ~fairly rather than tyrannically.

that reputation was a big deal. I hope in time we can rebuild it.

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Jonathan Eisen @phylogenomics.bsky.social · 24d

Excellent editorial by my friend and colleague @pracheeac.bsky.social:

"Academic Publishing Has Become a Racket"

www.wsj.com/opinion/acad...

Opinion | Academic Publishing Has Become a Racket

Scientists write and review papers without getting paid, and their institutions have to pay for access.

www.wsj.com

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