Lightnews — Scholar-powered news

Soh Kam Yung @sohkamyung.bsky.social · 1h

A White-crested Laughingthrush (Garrulax leucolophus) spotted at Mount Faber Park, Singapore on 2 March 2025. Gregarious birds and can be approached as they are used to humans.

On iNaturalist [ www.inaturalist.org/observations... ]

#iNaturalist #Nature #Photography #Singapore #Birds #Aves

A bird with a white crest, head and chest with a black face band across the eyes. The back portion of the bird is brown. In this picture, it has a spider in its beak.

The same bird, but now see from the side. It is facing to the right.

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Aussie Moths @wa-moths.bsky.social · 2h

Our first Southern Moon moth (Dasypodia selenophora) visited tonight. Last year we were recording these moths in early September, so they are somewhat later this year
#teammoth #ausinverts #wildoz #Leptember #inaturalist

Top view of a large moth with brown wings that have a pattern of darker lines, and a large blue, brown and black eyespot

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Reposted by Soh Kam Yung

Anthony (Tony) J. Martin @ichnologist.bsky.social · 3h

More news about an incredible a Middle Jurassic (~170 mya) dinosaur tracksite near Oxford (U.K.), which includes one of the longest continuous dinosaur trackways in the world, made by a big sauropod. 🧪🦕🐾🪨 #ichnology

Richard Butler @richardjbutler.bsky.social · 8h

Back in June we were back on the Oxfordshire “dinosaur highway”, excavating more dinosaur tracks with our teams from the Universities of Birmingham, Oxford & Liverpool John Moores. The BBC have a story out today about our work at the site:

www.bbc.co.uk/news/resourc...

In the footsteps of giants - BBC News

One of the longest sets of dinosaur footprints in the world has been discovered in a limestone quary near Bicester, in Oxfordshire, England.

www.bbc.co.uk

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Soh Kam Yung @sohkamyung.bsky.social · 2h

Fossils found preserved in a different kind of rock.

"This level of preservation rivals other well-preserved fossil sites, such as those consisting of shale or sandstone. Except here, they are entombed in iron."

#Fossils #Minerals

Unusual red rocks in Australia are rewriting the rules on exceptional fossil sites

Highly detailed fossils are typically found in shale or other fine-grained sedimentary rocks. These ones? They’re made of iron.

theconversation.com

Reposted by Soh Kam Yung

Tom Astle @tjalamont.bsky.social · 19h

For #Arachtober, here is a spider that's not a spider. It's Petrophila jaliscalis, a jumping-spider-mimicking moth - see the face-on spider pattern, with orange legs and sparkly dark eyes? I love finding these - I think they breed in my small goldfish pond, because the caterpillars are aquatic. 🌿🐙

A macro photo of a moth, seen from the side, on brown bark. The moth has white wings with lots of dark speckles, and a pattern of four orange vertical stripes, plus a row of dark spots above, with reflective scales in the centers. The effect creates a pattern that looks like a jumping spider seen face-on; the orange stripes mimic legs, and the dark spots mimic a jumping spider's row of large eyes.

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Corey S. Powell @coreyspowell.bsky.social · 18h

An ultra-high-energy neutrino spotted by a detector in the Mediterranean Sea could be the result of an exploding black hole.

This is a highly speculative interpretation--but exactly the kind of far-out exploration made possible by new neutrino experiments. 🧪🔭

news.mit.edu/2025/could-p...

A simulation depicts a new high-energy neutrino’s detection by sensor strings rising from the Mediterranean seabed.

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Soh Kam Yung @sohkamyung.bsky.social · 7h

"Right handed version" implies there are also versions for left handed people?

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Aussie Moths @wa-moths.bsky.social · 8h

Two of the Geometrid moths that visited our garden light last night now the evenings are starting to get a little warmer in the Perth Hills:

📍Rhinodia rostraria
📍Scopula sp. (not sure of the species)

#teammoth #ausinverts #wildoz #moth #Lepidoptera #inaturalist

Top view of a moth with brownish/grey wings with three imcomplete darker bands across each wing. The forewings have recurved wingtips and the wings all have wavy margins

Top view of a moth with pale brown forewings that have three slightly darker zig zag bands across them

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Reposted by Soh Kam Yung

Ben Sheldon @sheldonbirds.bsky.social · 16h

Large citizen science datasets are powerful tools for biodiversity science, but they may have biases. Nice new paper from @louisbackstrom.bsky.social et al. showing that for eBird and Birdtrack lists there is a tendency for rare species to be over-represented
onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/epdf/10....

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Toad Facts @toadfacts.bsky.social · 22h

Our friend the Peru Stubfoot Toad is a critically endangered toad who lives in high elevations in the Andes of Peru! They are one of a few toads who are known to produce tetrodotoxin, the same kind of toxin found in pufferfish! (photo by Jörn Köhler)

An olive-green toad with a somewhat lumpy appearance, with a wide black band down their side! The black band is speckled with small yellow dots! They also have a yellow patch on their face and hind legs! They have small reddish areas on their feet!

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Conor @bronxbirds.bsky.social · 1d

Pileated Woodpecker this weekend camping in Pennsylvania #birds #nikon

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IEEE Spectrum @spectrum.ieee.org · 1d

By 2035, @ebpgenome.bsky.social is aiming to genetically sequence every one of the 1.8 million species on our world. They hope to discover drugs, enzymes, and catalysts from their chemical sampling. spectrum.ieee.org/whole-genome...

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Reposted by Soh Kam Yung

Alex Wild @alexwild.bsky.social · 1d

When fly designers subcontract Jackson Pollock to do the eyes. (Eristalinus sp. hover fly, Victoria, Australia).

A close-in macro photograph of the face of a robust greenish-yellow hover fly standing on a green leaf. The fly's enormous compound eyes are speckled with hundreds of blood-red spots.

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Soh Kam Yung @sohkamyung.bsky.social · 1d

A Chocolate Royal (Remelana jangala) spotted at Upper Seletar Reservoir Park, Singapore on 12 Oct 2025. A moderately rare, but pretty, butterfly.

On iNaturalist [ www.inaturalist.org/observations... ].

#iNaturalist #Nature #Photography #Singapore #Insects #Butterflies #Lepidoptera

A butterfly with brown wings, and a brilliant blue-green patch at the tail-end of the wing with two eye spots and a pair of white-tipped tails. A darker brown line runs along the wing near the edge.

The butterfly resting with the wings partially open. The upper side of the wing has a purple patch in the middle with a broad brown border around it.

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Soh Kam Yung @sohkamyung.bsky.social · 1d

"This has created concerns among archivists, historians and archaeologists that future generations may face a sort of "digital dark age" when they look back for material from the past 50 years or so."

#ComputerHistory #FloppyDisks #History #Data #Archives #Preservation

A digital dark age? The people rescuing forgotten knowledge trapped on old floppy disks

From lectures by Stephen Hawking to the letters of British politician Neil Kinnock – it's a race against time to save the historical treasures locked away on old floppy disks.

www.bbc.com

Soh Kam Yung @sohkamyung.bsky.social · 1d

Also check out this post by @aresluna.org , which has lots of wonderful details on the Qwerty keyboard, and the result of using the Qwerty layout on the typewriter that Mark Twain used.

Marcin Wichary @aresluna.org · Aug 29

I just put online the chapter from my book that talks about all the myths and mysteries about QWERTY and Dvorak.

You can read it here: aresluna.org/the-primitiv...

The primitive tortureboard

Untangling the myths and mysteries of Dvorak and QWERTY

aresluna.org

Soh Kam Yung @sohkamyung.bsky.social · 1d

"Researchers in the US have studied the physics of how cutting onions can produce a tear-jerking reaction.
[...]
[I]f you want to reduce chances of welling up when making dinner, sharpen your knives, cut slowly and perhaps don’t keep the bulbs in the fridge."

#Physics #Food #Onions

The physics behind why cutting onions makes us cry – Physics World

It’s mostly to do with knife sharpness and cutting technique

physicsworld.com

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Brian Crecente @crecente.bsky.social · 1d

Giocatraduci

Sanyo - 1995

Source: padandpixel.com/a-history-of...

#Handcandy

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David Shiffman, Ph.D. 🦈 @whysharksmatter.bsky.social · 1d

ICYMI, here is the press release for my study with @drjuliawester.bsky.social - we surveyed over 800 scientists who use social media. They overwhelmingly agree that Twitter is no longer useful or pleasant, and that for all professional online scientist goals, Bluesky is superior.
🧪 #SciComm 🌍

“Twitter sucks now and all the cool kids are moving to Bluesky:” Our new survey shows that scientists no longer find Twitter professionally useful or pleasant

My colleague Dr. Julia Wester and I have a new paper out in the journal Integrative and Comparative Biology reporting on the results of a survey distributed to over 800 scientists, science educator…

www.southernfriedscience.com

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Matt Friedman @friedmanlab.bsky.social · 1d

Spookiest decoration at the "Zoo Goes Boo" event at the John Ball Zoo in Grand Rapids? Giant model of parasitoid wasps hatching from cocoons affixed to their caterpillar host.

Large model of a green caterpillar, the back of which is covered by dozens of white cocoons. Wasps can be seen emerging from some of the cocoons.

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Soh Kam Yung @sohkamyung.bsky.social · 1d

A fascinating book that looks at the large variety of moths found. It covers the major groups of moths except one: the butterflies, which have their own book.

Review at my website [ sohkamyung.github.io/reviews/nonf... ] and on BookWyrm [ bookwyrm.social/user/sohkamy... ].

#Reviews #Books #Moths

Cover for "Moths of the World: A Natural History" by David L. Wagner.

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Perry Beasley-Hall, PhD @pbeasleyhall.bsky.social · 1d

Like other members of the Hyperbaeninae, Dialarnaca zhoui spins silk to create shelters from rolled leaves. What ISN'T common is the species' striking pink and gold colouration! This gorgeous leaf-roller is known only from the Yunnan province in China. #EverydayEnsifera

📸: Zhou Yu

Source: https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/189864718

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Alex Wild @alexwild.bsky.social · 1d

One of the midwest's most iconic insects, a goldenrod soldier beetle sits in a mid-summer aster. Indiana Dunes National Park.

Macro photo in full on view of a large yellow flower, with an elongated orange/yellow beetle with black legs, antennae, and markings standing on the petals just above the center.

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Aussie Moths @wa-moths.bsky.social · 1d

Our first observation of a Hook-winged Carpet moth (Anachloris uncinata) for the season this weekend.

The caterpillar of this moth feeds on leaves of native Guinea Flowers (Hibbertia sp.), which are flowering madly at the minute.

#teammoth #ausinverts #ozflora #wildoz #Lepidoptera #inaturalist

Picture of a moth with brown forewings that have a dark mark at the apex and paler markings across the middle of each forewing. The wings have a pointed tip

Picture of a small shrub covered in bright yellow flowers

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Stickyfrogs @stickyfrogs.bsky.social · 1d

This Beautiful Friend from Perth is the Western Banjo or Pobblebonk Frog! This species is only found in the southwest corner of Australia and they were kind enough to share their Song of Bonk with us while we were there!

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