Lightnews — Scholar-powered news

Reposted by Dr. Lynne Elkins

Alan Gerard @wxmanms1.bsky.social · 1d

Disastrous storm surge struck western AK Sunday. All 6 NWS upper air sites in the area have chronic issues (see alt-text). In addition to no releases from 2 sites, 2 sites are releasing only 1x per day instead of 2x. 2 have intermittent issues, 1 of these (Nome) had no releases 10/9 or 10/10 (1/2)

Map of National Weather Service upper air sites in Alaska. Red circles indicate sites not currently releasing balloons, orange circles sites on releasing routinely once per day instead of twice, and purple sites with intermittent issues with releases.

1 28 43

Dr. Lynne Elkins @ljelkins.bsky.social · 18h

I'm surprised by the number of notifications this random post got! So I don't blame her. She's right, though, people should of course read what they cite!

1 1

Dr. Lynne Elkins @ljelkins.bsky.social · 1d

This is bizarre. What do folks think research is? Exploring a new idea, by reading ~100 articles in chronological order and discovering the holes in their reasoning, is actually really fun IF you like the subject and doing research. (And if you don't, that's ok, it's just not your career path.)

Arrianna Marie Planey, PhD MA @arrianna-planey.bsky.social · 1d

People who say "you can't possibly read everything you cite" are saying a lot about themselves, IMO.

It doesn't have to be a heavy lift. I spend about half an hour a day processing new-to-me papers by organizing them in my reference managers & adding topical tags so I can create bibliographies.

2 13 58

Dr. Lynne Elkins @ljelkins.bsky.social · 3d

Oh no!!

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

FULL STORY HERE: Emails began flooding CDC inboxes late Friday night announcing dozens of layoffs. HR people brought back from furlough to oversee the RIFs. Disease detectives, entire Washington office, global health, injury prevention, MMWR staff among those hit.
www.nytimes.com/2025/10/11/u...

Trump Administration Lays Off Dozens of C.D.C. Officials

www.nytimes.com

2

Reposted by Dr. Lynne Elkins

Ken Caldeira @kencaldeira.com · 3d

We could get rid of half of the radiative forcing of climate caused by aviation if we could get airlines to stop making contrails, mostly by flying a few thousand feet higher or lower.

New open-access paper from a climate physics perspective.

agupubs.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1029/...

A Stylized Study of the Climate Response to Longwave and Shortwave Forcing at the Altitude of Aviation‐Induced Cirrus

For the same magnitude of LW and SW forcing at the altitude of aviation-induced cirrus, climate sensitivity is larger when the forcing is imposed at high latitudes For the same change in concentr...

agupubs.onlinelibrary.wiley.com

11 29

Dr. Lynne Elkins @ljelkins.bsky.social · 4d

Oh interesting. I sure hope that doesn't happen!

Reposted by Dr. Lynne Elkins

Dr. Dawn Wright @deepseadawn.bsky.social · 4d

MIT, as one of nine schools that were asked to agree to adopt conservative priorities and policies in exchange for funding perks, REJECTS the Trump administration deal.

wapo.st/4niC09b
(gift article) #AcademicSky

MIT rejects Trump administration deal for priority federal funding

MIT is one of nine schools that were asked to agree to adopt conservative priorities and policies in exchange for funding perks.

wapo.st

3 17 83

Dr. Lynne Elkins @ljelkins.bsky.social · 4d

Phew. (I also thought Dartmouth already said no, which would make MIT the second school, but that doesn't matter!)

Joey Fishkin @fishkin.bsky.social · 4d

@mit.edu has done an incredibly important service to the nation by being willing to be the first school to reject the administration's "compact."

President Kornbluth focuses—and she's right—on the principle that "scientific funding should be based on scientific merit alone."

The document also includes principles with which we disagree, including those that would restrict freedom of expression and our independence as an institution. And fundamentally, the premise of the document is inconsistent with our core belief that scientific funding should be based on scientific merit alone.

1 2

Dr. Lynne Elkins @ljelkins.bsky.social · 4d

Yeah, I find that after phyllos and amphiboles, they usually love the very simple pyroxene formulas!

1

Dr. Lynne Elkins @ljelkins.bsky.social · 5d

and the Phillies won the World Series immediately after I moved back the last time. (There isn't much baseball in Nebraska, so no meaningful data there.)

In other words, hold on, Phillies, sometimes it takes a year or two after I move somewhere new, but signs are looking good for next year!!

Dr. Lynne Elkins @ljelkins.bsky.social · 5d

I enjoy baseball, and also have slightly silly/weird superstitions about local teams right after I move to a new place. The Isotopes had their first season when I lived in ABQ, the Red Sox made the playoffs and then won the World Series after I moved to Boston...

1

Dr. Lynne Elkins @ljelkins.bsky.social · 5d

Peter Mulvey, Dar Williams, Jeff Foucault.

Also Barenaked Ladies. Fight me, it's true.

Emily, a Two-Shoes-Gooder @rebelmusicteach.bsky.social · 9d

I also need to know: I am fairly middle-of-the-road on Taylor Swift but someone I know called her the Greatest Living Lyricist. She is not.

Who is yours? Either the greatest or your favorite?

1 2

Dr. Lynne Elkins @ljelkins.bsky.social · 5d

Not to ignore the substance of your post or anything but did... did you just say that the pyroxenes are not the easy formulas

1 2

Dr. Lynne Elkins @ljelkins.bsky.social · 5d

Agreed, I just had one of these!

1

Dr. Lynne Elkins @ljelkins.bsky.social · 5d

I think it was the late 80s/early 90s opening credits track, IIRC

1

Dr. Lynne Elkins @ljelkins.bsky.social · 5d

Probably!!

1

Dr. Lynne Elkins @ljelkins.bsky.social · 5d

Just randomly remembering one day when I was in my car in Lincoln, Nebraska, and the local classic rock station randomly played the old Wheel of Fortune theme song, in its entirety, between other songs like it was just another song

2 7

Dr. Lynne Elkins @ljelkins.bsky.social · 5d

Oh goodness, it's a whole CHANNEL

4

Dr. Lynne Elkins @ljelkins.bsky.social · 6d

Remember, kids, people should still measure U-series in stuff!

Kevin Anchukaitis @thirstygecko.bsky.social · 6d

This is cool - new paper from Hali Kilbourne et al. 'Dating a Medieval Tsunami With Uranium-Series Techniques on Caribbean Corals' agupubs.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1029/...

Dating a Medieval Tsunami With Uranium‐Series Techniques on Caribbean Corals

Uranium-series analyses provide dates for 15 annually banded coral skeletons on the low Caribbean island of Anegada A subset of the corals was likely washed ashore in a Puerto Rico Trench tsunami...

agupubs.onlinelibrary.wiley.com

6

Dr. Lynne Elkins @ljelkins.bsky.social · 6d

Update: the gluten free blend only made folds!

Class experiment with compressed layers of flour and blue chalk, showing a compressional fold

5

Dr. Lynne Elkins @ljelkins.bsky.social · 6d

101 lab experiment day!

Box of layered flour and orange chalk, compressed and then cut open so it forms faults

1 7

Reposted by Dr. Lynne Elkins

Cris @crisvector.com · 6d

Chat GPT

7 290 840

Reposted by Dr. Lynne Elkins

Deanna Kreisel 🌱 @doctorwaffle.substack.com · 12d

In honor of National Poetry Day, the greatest parody rewrite of all time:

Screen cap of parodic version of William Blake's "The Tyger" that begins:
Tyger! Tyger! Burning bright
(Not sure if I spelled that right)
What immortal hand or eye
Could fashion such a stripy guy?
What the hammer that hath hewn it
Into such a chonky unit?
Did who made the lamb make thee,
Or an external franchisee?

39 1.4K 3.7K

Reposted by Dr. Lynne Elkins

Scott Kardel aka Palomar Skies @palomarskies.bsky.social · 13d

The view is even better on camera 3. www.youtube.com/live/BqmpkUd...

4 93 320

Dr. Lynne Elkins @ljelkins.bsky.social · 13d

Yeah, sadly, I know lots of people who are now considering cancelling fall field trips, because they rely on national parks, including the visitor centers for facilities access.

1