Lightnews — Scholar-powered news

Jeff Atkins @atkinsjeff.bsky.social · 22h

This is my favorite running gag y'all post.

Reposted by Jeff Atkins

Lars Brudvig @lars-brudvig.bsky.social · 1d

New from the group:

Across 100 oak savannas and five states, we show how management structures groundlayer plant diversity by modifying canopy openness, with context dependent effects based on spatial scale and soil attributes

esajournals.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/...

A structural equation model explaining oak savanna groundlayer plant diversity based on management, soils, and aspects of ecosystem structure

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Reposted by Jeff Atkins

Rodrigo Vargas @vargaslab.bsky.social · 1d

🌎 Support for Long-Term Ecological Studies Matters Now More Than Ever

I am excited to share our new paper: “Long-term ecological studies must continue: insights from a dryland transition zone” co-authored with Huong LE, Ph.D. and Scott Collins.

link.springer.com/article/10.1...

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Jeff Atkins @atkinsjeff.bsky.social · 1d

This one is truly unhinged, but also I do like the option.

Reposted by Jeff Atkins

IPCC @ipcc.bsky.social · 17d

Registration for experts interested in serving as Expert Reviewers and providing scientific comments on the First Order Draft of the Special Report on Climate Change and Cities is now open!

Read more 🔗
www.ipcc.ch/2025/09/17/p...

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Reposted by Jeff Atkins

Shannon Gillikin @sgillikin.bsky.social · 2d

School board candidate forum… let’s goooo

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Reposted by Jeff Atkins

Robyn Mieko Dahl @dahlgeoed.bsky.social · 3d

The Geology Dept at WWU is hiring an Assistant Prof in Hydrology! Come be my colleague in a great department! More info in the attached flyer, and at hr.wwu.edu/careers-facu...

Assistant Professor of Hydrogeology

About Western: Western Washington University, with over 15,000 students in seven colleges and the graduate school, is nationally recognized for its educational programs, students and faculty. The campus is located in Bellingham, Washington, a coastal community of 90,000 overlooking Bellingham Bay, the San Juan Islands and the North Cascades Mountain range. The city lies 90 miles north of Seattle and 60 miles south of Vancouver, British Columbia. Western has additional sites in Anacortes, Bremerton, Everett, Port Angeles, and Poulsbo. Western is recognized nationally for its successes, such as being named one of the top public master's-granting institutions in the Pacific Northwest for 25 years in a row by U.S. News & World Report.

About the Geology Department: The Geology Department has 17 faculty, offering BA, BS and MS programs in Geology, Geophysics, and Science Education, serving approximately 190 majors. The department has strengths in field and lab-based teaching and research in geomorphology, igneous petrology, geophysics, hydrogeology and envionmental/engineering geology, planetary geology, sedimentology, science education, and structure/tectonics.

Additional information about our programs can be found at https://geology.wwu.edu/. The Geology Department strives to further Western's identity as an institution that welcomes and embraces diversity and encourages applications from diverse candidates.

About the Position: The ideal candidate will support our department's ability to produce workforce-ready geoscientists. We seek individuals who are enthusiastic about teaching and who will establish a productive research program that involves undergraduate and Master's-level students. Broad areas of research interest may include, but | are not limited to, groundwater-surface water interactions, environmental hydrogeology, and groundwater systems (e.g-geothermal, fault zone, coastal, mountain). Teaching responsibilities will in…

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Reposted by Jeff Atkins

John Knowles @ecohydrojfk.bsky.social · 2d

💧Calling all hydrologists💧Montana State University is hiring an assistant professor of water systems science, broadly defined but with connections to groundwater/subsurface processes. Please spread the word! jobs.montana.edu/postings/48829

Assistant Professor of Environmental Water Systems Science

The Department of Land Resources and Environmental Sciences at Montana State University Bozeman invites applications for a tenure-track position at the level of Assistant Professor with expertise in E...

jobs.montana.edu

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Reposted by Jeff Atkins

Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory @lamont.columbia.edu · 3d

🏆 Congratulations to @lamont.columbia.edu tree ring scientist Ed Cook, recipient of the Roger Revelle Medal from @agu.org for outstanding contributions in climate science! #AGU25 ➡️ Learn more about Cook and this prestigious honor: www.agu.org/user-profile...

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Jeff Atkins @atkinsjeff.bsky.social · 3d

This totally tracks 🤣

Sally Hudson @sallylhudson.bsky.social · 3d

Today I learned that MIT is in Massachusetts because its founder, William Barton Rogers — a UVA prof and the state geologist — decided he just couldn’t with Virginia anymore.

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Reposted by Jeff Atkins

Mark Peifer (He, him) @peiferlabunc.bsky.social · 4d

I'm very excited to announce that UNC Biology has 6 faculty positions open this year! The first is for an Asst Professor who studies organismal resilience using an integrative approach 1/n
unc.peopleadmin.com/postings/307...

Poster with QR code linking to the position

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Jeff Atkins @atkinsjeff.bsky.social · 5d

Judaculla Rock! Love this place and miss Cullowhee.

Chris Cooper @chriscooperwcu.bsky.social · 5d

Beautiful morning at Judaculla Rock near Cullowhee. Definitely worth a visit if you're visiting Jackson County, or if you (like me) live here

The rock has more than 1,500 petroglyphs--the most of any boulder East of the Mississippi.

A 6 post 🧵 that no one asked for ⤵️

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Reposted by Jeff Atkins

Dan Garisto @dangaristo.bsky.social · 6d

"Admittedly, research grant funding is not the most riveting topic to come before this Court. However, the Court has come to appreciate that, as Defendants readily admit, basic research is an 'essential' service that universities provide to the federal government and so to the American people."

This case is about “indirect costs,” an accounting term undoubtedly unfamiliar to most.
Defense Secretary Hegseth has seized on this knowledge gap to call them “waste” and
“bureaucratic fat.”3
But that is entirely misleading. Indirect costs are the buildings within which
new materials for life-saving armor are developed. They are the supercomputers that find new
ways to defend our country against cyber-attacks. Yes, they are also the assistants who keep things
running and the custodians who come in at night. But these are not “waste.” Indeed, the
regulations treat them as both “necessary and reasonable.”4
Admittedly, research grant funding is not the most riveting topic to come before this Court.
However, the Court has come to appreciate that, as Defendants readily admit, basic research is an
“essential” service that universities provide to the federal government and so to the American
people. In exchange, universities submit themselves to a baroque and exacting regulatory system
that scrutinizes their costs and demands accountability. Yet, Defendants would unravel that
partnership with less than a nod toward Congress’s requirement that federal agencies make
reasonable choices and rationally explain them.

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Reposted by Jeff Atkins

Lars Brudvig @lars-brudvig.bsky.social · 9d

Apply to become the next MSU EEB Presidential Postdoctoral Fellow!

These are two year positions with research stipend, working with 2+ MSU EEB faculty. Applications due 10 November 2025. More here:

eeb.msu.edu/initiatives/...

Postdoctoral Fellowship - Ecology, Evolution, and Behavior

eeb.msu.edu

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Reposted by Jeff Atkins

Juno Rylee Schultz @junoryleejournalism.com · 7d

David Simon, creator of ‘The Wire’, being interviewed by Ari Shapiro (NPR)

SHAPIRO: OK, so you've spent your career creating television without Al, and I could imagine today you thinking, boy, I wish I had had that tool to solve those thorny problems...
SIMON: What?
SHAPIRO: ...Or saying...
SIMON: You imagine that?
SHAPIRO: ...Boy, if that had existed, it would have screwed me over.
SIMON: I don't think Al can remotely challenge what writers do at a fundamentally creative level.
SHAPIRO: But if you're trying to transition from scene five to scene six, and you're stuck with that transition, you could imagine plugging that portion of the script into an Al and say, give me 10 ideas for how to transition this.
SIMON: I'd rather put a gun in my mouth.

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Reposted by Jeff Atkins

emily moonlight @threnody.bsky.social · 7d

just watched a dozen people ask microsoft copilot experts their most pressing questions and those questions were 90% “how do i turn it off?” and “when i turn it off, is it really off or is it spying on me?”

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Reposted by Jeff Atkins

Tim Curran @timcurran.bsky.social · 8d

Great PhD opportunity with an excellent supervisor:

Quantify traits of tree species across the western US to determine how tree populations and forest communities will respond to drought and fire.

plant-traits.net/lab-openings/

Lab openings | Laughlin Research Lab

plant-traits.net

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Jeff Atkins @atkinsjeff.bsky.social · 7d

No.

Science News @scinews.bsky.social · 7d

Prizes must recognize machine contributions to discovery

The future of science will be written by humans and machines together. Awards should reflect that reality.

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

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Jeff Atkins @atkinsjeff.bsky.social · 7d

Actually love that play, but also...$1400?????

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Jeff Atkins @atkinsjeff.bsky.social · 7d

One of the good teams might win today, so that's something.

Jeff Atkins @atkinsjeff.bsky.social · 7d

Botetourt

Merriam-Webster @merriam-webster.com · 8d

What’s the word where you’re from that, when pronounced exactly as it looks, identifies a tourist immediately?

Reposted by Jeff Atkins

Cate Macinnis-Ng @loraxcate.bsky.social · 11d

📣 Opportunity for early career researchers from developing countries who work on climate change. IPCC is calling for chapter scientists for assessment round 7. Successful applicants will receive a stipend for 48 months. 🧪🌎
www.ictp.it/opportunity/...

IPCC AR7 Chapter Scientists | ICTP

The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) is in the process of preparing its Seventh Assessment report (AR7). The IPCC Working Groups are seeking highly motivated early-career researchers f...

www.ictp.it

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Reposted by Jeff Atkins

Cate Macinnis-Ng @loraxcate.bsky.social · 8d

Applications for @ipcc.bsky.social AR7 Chapter Scientists close on 18th October. Great opportunity for emerging researchers from developing countries! 🧪🌎🌱

Cate Macinnis-Ng @loraxcate.bsky.social · 11d

📣 Opportunity for early career researchers from developing countries who work on climate change. IPCC is calling for chapter scientists for assessment round 7. Successful applicants will receive a stipend for 48 months. 🧪🌎
www.ictp.it/opportunity/...

IPCC AR7 Chapter Scientists | ICTP

The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) is in the process of preparing its Seventh Assessment report (AR7). The IPCC Working Groups are seeking highly motivated early-career researchers f...

www.ictp.it

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Reposted by Jeff Atkins

Chris Cooper @chriscooperwcu.bsky.social · 8d

One week until we begin reviewing applications ⬇️.

3:3 load w/ manageable class size. If you're a junior Americanist who is excited about teaching Congress, Intro American, and the Presidency, doing research in a collaborative environment & living in the mountains, please apply.

#polisky

Chris Cooper @chriscooperwcu.bsky.social · 14d

We (Western Carolina University) are hiring for an assistant professor in American politics (w/ focus on & willingness to teach the Presidency, & Congress). Review of applications begins Oct. 15.

jobs.wcu.edu/postings/31915

Good colleagues, good students, good views. Reach out w/ ?s.

#polisky

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Reposted by Jeff Atkins

Mathias Disney @matdisney.bsky.social · 10d

Our new perspective on what TLS can (& can't) do in forest research www.nature.com/articles/s41... - led by Eduardo Maeda w lots of great colleagues including @kimcalders.bsky.social @emilyrlines.bsky.social @louiseterryn.bsky.social @benjaminbrede.bsky.social (apols for any I don;t have @ for)

Expanding forest research with terrestrial LiDAR technology - Nature Communications

This Review highlights how terrestrial laser scanning is transforming forest research by enabling highly detailed 3D measurements of trees, supporting applications in forest ecology, carbon monitoring, and biodiversity assessment.

www.nature.com

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