Lightnews — Scholar-powered news

Zach Cofran @dizachster.bsky.social · 6h

In ANTH 120 this week we examine the "digit ratio" comparing the relative length of the second and fourth fingers, and which correlates with social behavior in primate species.

Homo naledi (South Africa ~300,000 years ago) has the highest ratio of any fossil hominin (article: bit.ly/474OVoP)

a graph on the left compares the "2P:4P ratio" among living and fossil apes (including humans), while the right-side shows an articulated fossil hand skeleton

A darkened lab with brown paper covering the walls, the brown paper itself covered in colorful hand stencils

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Eric Turkheimer @ent3c.bsky.social · 2d

In 2018, Charles Murray challenged me to a bet: "We will understand IQ genetically—I think most of the picture will have been filled in by 2025—there will still be blanks—but we’ll know basically what’s going on." It's now 2025, and I claim a win. I write about it in The Atlantic.

Your Genes Are Simply Not Enough to Explain How Smart You Are

Seven years ago, I took a bet with Charles Murray about whether we’d basically understand the genetics of intelligence by now.

www.theatlantic.com

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Sherrilyn Ifill @sifill.bsky.social · 1d

I can’t help but think today about how many young people were savaged on social media, branded as anti-semites and abandoned by their schools for daring to call for a ceasefire. I remember saying that it was the first time I can remember that calling for ceasefire was regarded as a hostile demand.

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Senator Chris Van Hollen @vanhollen.senate.gov · 21h

Trump is saying the quiet part out loud: he sent a $20B taxpayer-financed bailout to help his far-right buddy Milei cling to power.

Meanwhile our government is shut down, public servants aren't getting paid & we're barreling toward a Trump-made health care crisis. Sounds like Argentina First to me.

Aaron Rupar @atrupar.com · 1d

Trump on Milei: "If he loses, we will not be generous with Argentina."

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Zach Cofran @dizachster.bsky.social · 21h

is the US seriously just killing random people on boats in another country? are we all going insane?

Al Jazeera English @aljazeera.com · 22h

Tuesday's strike is the fifth known US attack on a vessel off the Venezuelan coast, bringing the total death toll to 27.

Trump administration carries out lethal strike in Caribbean, killing six

Tuesday's strike is the fifth known US attack on a vessel off the Venezuelan coast, bringing the total death toll to 27.

bit.ly

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noah strike @noahstrike.bsky.social · 1d

Pulling back the curtain on the “Young Republican” infrastructure and surprise! It’s the Hitler Youth

Chanda Prescod-Weinstein 🌌 @chanda.blacksky.app · 1d

'“Can we fix the showers? Gas chambers don’t fit the Hitler aesthetic,” Joe Maligno...wrote'

'Many of the chat members already work inside government or party politics, and one serves as a state senator.'

‘I love Hitler’: Leaked messages expose Young Republicans’ racist chat

Thousands of private messages reveal young GOP leaders joking about gas chambers, slavery and rape.

www.politico.com

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American Association of Biological Anthropologists @bioanth.org · 2d

⏰ Just two more days to submit your: abstract! Exec Comm nominations! Award nominations! Student presentation award app! All these are due on October 15 for #AABA2026 bioanth.org/95th-annual-...

95th Annual Meeting, Denver, Colorado (2026) - AABA

Our 95th Annual Meeting will take place in Denver, Colorado, from March 18-21, 2026. Students: Don’t miss your opportunity for free registration for the 2026 […]

bioanth.org

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Cara Ocobock @caraocobock.bsky.social · 1d

ICYMI Notre Dame Anthropology will be hiring a post-doc for 2026-2028. This is part of a university-wide initiative to support early career scholars. Deadline is Oct. 31...sorry for late notice.

apply.interfolio.com/171503

Apply - Interfolio {{$ctrl.$state.data.pageTitle}} - Apply - Interfolio

apply.interfolio.com

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Fabio Chiusi @fabiochiusi.bsky.social · 1d

"we should not assume that technological revolutions are productivity revolutions. The rate of productivity growth has been in sharp decline since 2003, and today sits where it stood before the widespread adoption of the personal computer"

www.techpolicy.press/generative-a...

Generative AI’s Productivity Myth | TechPolicy.Press

People may be using artificial intelligence, but that doesn’t mean it’s useful, writes Eryk Salvaggio.

www.techpolicy.press

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Brenna Hassett @brennawalks.bsky.social · 1d

I'm hiring! 4 year post doc on my Wellcome Trust grant -- come be inventive about isotopes in teeth with me in PPN Turkiye :) www.lancashire.ac.uk/jobs/post-do...

please share!

Post Doctoral Research Assistant - 1160-25

Thinking of the next step in your career? Take a look at our exciting new role, Post Doctoral Research Assistant based at our Other. Find out more and apply he…

www.lancashire.ac.uk

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Zach Cofran @dizachster.bsky.social · 1d

Today we did the annual ritual of the cave, where students made their hand stencils on the walls of Leang Blodgett, joining generations of Anthropology students before them

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Prof Lee R Berger @leerberger.bsky.social · 2d

Here’s something you don’t see every day (or in fact ever) the bigger bone is a hominin phalanx. The little round bone, a sesamoid bone nearly in anatomical position. 2mya from Malapa - A sediba. Beautiful preparation by one of our outstanding preparators Bonele of the Nat Geo Rising Star Project.

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John Hawks @johnhawks.net · 3d

Paleoanthropology can be confusing with names. Why would scientists use “Denisovan” instead of coming up with a species name? Or “modern human” instead of Homo sapiens? And why didn’t some names ever catch on, like the Heidelbergers or the chumanzees?

www.johnhawks.net/p/informal-h...

Informal hominins, from Denisovan to superarchaic

In a new research article, I review the ways that paleoanthropologists name ancient groups outside the Linnaean system.

www.johnhawks.net

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John Hawks @johnhawks.net · 3d

The first images of this skull, KNM-ER 406, published by Richard Leakey in 1976 included one from this overhead angle, showing the enormous gaps to accommodate temporal muscles for powerful chewing. The skull represents Paranthropus boisei, and lived around 1.65 million years ago. #inktober

Line drawing of a skull of Paranthropus boisei seen from above, with very large temporal fossae and sagittal crest visible

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Sherrilyn Ifill @sifill.bsky.social · 3d

Exactly.

Emily Galvin-Almanza @galvinalmanza.bsky.social · 4d

Seriously, Judges *do no do things like this*

They don't give their opinion to the media

They don't criticize how SCOTUS works

This is them breaking the emergency glass, folks
www.nytimes.com/2025/10/11/u...

Federal Judges, Warning of ‘Judicial Crisis,’ Fault Supreme Court’s Emergency Orders

www.nytimes.com

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Zach Cofran @dizachster.bsky.social · 4d

definitely what I learned in catholic school was that Jesus Christ loved it when rich people hoarded their money, Thiel makes a great point

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Sheryl Gay Stolberg @sherylnyt.bsky.social · 4d

BREAKING: Friday night massacre underway at CDC. Doznes of "disease detectives," high-level scientists, entire Washington staff and editors of the MMWR (Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report) have all been RIFed and received the following notice:

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Zach Cofran @dizachster.bsky.social · 5d

First solder, next sky and sea

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Zach Cofran @dizachster.bsky.social · 5d

Nice #FossilFriday by @johnhawks.net

John Hawks @johnhawks.net · 5d

MH1, the ”skull in the rock”, represents a child of between 8 and 11 years of age belonging to the species Australopithecus sediba. This and other fossils from Malapa, South Africa, are approximately 2 million years old. #inktober

Line drawing of a skull of Australopithecus still partially embedded in rock, viewed from right front

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John Hawks @johnhawks.net · 5d

MH1, the ”skull in the rock”, represents a child of between 8 and 11 years of age belonging to the species Australopithecus sediba. This and other fossils from Malapa, South Africa, are approximately 2 million years old. #inktober

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Don Moynihan @donmoyn.bsky.social · 5d

We live in a country where the government honors insurrectionists who sacked the Capitol, and defines peaceful protest, even before it occurs, to be terrorism.
They know their position is weak, they know they are unpopular, which is why they are seeking to stamp out dissent.

Aaron Rupar @atrupar.com · 5d

Mike Johnson: "We're so angry about it. I mean, I'm a very patient guy, but I've had it with these people. The theory we have right now -- they have a hate America rally that's scheduled for October 18 on the National Mall. It's the pro-Hamas wing and antifa people ... "

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Louis Römer @lromeranth.bsky.social · 5d

It’s also that since Rowan is directly involved with this so called “compact,” this not opinion but advertising

Gregg Gonsalves @gregggonsalves.bsky.social · 5d

Thank you @nytopinion.nytimes.com for publishing this rot. Marc Rowan has run hundreds of companies into the dust to extract profits from their failure and bankruptcies. Now he wants to do the same to American higher education. Do not believe a word this man says. 1/ www.nytimes.com/2025/10/10/o...

Opinion | Trump’s ‘Compact’ With Universities Is Badly Needed

www.nytimes.com

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Claudia Astorino @claudistics.bsky.social · 5d

new article is up in full-text in #AJBA @bioanth.org! 🧪 💀

I predicted expression levels for skeletal sex indicators for 9 forms of #intersex, based on what we know ab these intersex variations (and which traits are most likely to affect bone growth, development, & remodeling) #SexualPolymorphism

onlinelibrary.wiley.com

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Zach Cofran @dizachster.bsky.social · 6d

The baby where it belongs, in her [checks note scribbled on hand] placenta

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Dr Matt Pope @mattpope.bsky.social · 7d

Great interview with Svante Pääbo Source: EL PAÍS English
search.app/WcjQz
🏺🦣🧪 🧬

Svante Pääbo, father of paleogenetics: ‘The reason for the Neanderthals’ extinction lies in how numerous we’ve become’

The Nobel Prize winner in Medicine is investigating genetic changes that could have given our species a competitive advantage, and the possibility of extracting the genome of the Flores hobbit

search.app

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