Lightnews — Scholar-powered news

Reposted by Adriana Darielle Mejía Briscoe

NPR @npr.org · 16h

A Cornell University researcher has been developing an artificial heart for children for more than 20 years. Now, his research is on hold and his lab is shut down.

This 4-year-old's heart is failing. A federal grant that might help him was canceled

A Cornell University researcher has been developing an artificial heart for children for more than 20 years. Now, his research is on hold and his lab is shut down.

n.pr

93 1.4K 2.1K

Adriana Darielle Mejía Briscoe @adrianabriscoe.bsky.social · 3m

Yikes. This will be devastating.

Rebekah Jones @georebekah.bsky.social · 22m

The Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA) faces its deepest cuts ever under Trump's budget.

The $2.9 billion allocated to the 574 federally-recognized tribes will be cut to $1.7 billion, with more cuts to supporting programs on the way.

Read for free:
www.mesoscalenews.com/p/bureau-of-...

Bureau of Indian Affairs faces deepest cuts in US History

On Indigenous Peoples’ Day this year — a day that ought to be a moment of reflection, honor, and renewal of Indigenous heritage — the reality instead evokes mourning, shame, and questions of national ...

www.mesoscalenews.com

Reposted by Adriana Darielle Mejía Briscoe

United Farm Workers @ufw.bsky.social · 36m

"Maria" is rolling up raisins under the hot Madera sun. To earn $70, she has to roll 1,000 sheets! Each row has around 250 sheet. It's hard grueling work walking on the burning sand for hours rolling one sheet after another. #WeFeedYou

14 99 340

Reposted by Adriana Darielle Mejía Briscoe

Duke University Press @dukepress.bsky.social · 53m

Today is a good day to read some contemporary accounts of Columbus's voyages to the Americas & their consequences, such as those of Bartolomé de Las Casas & Fray Ramón Pané, who both condemned the treatment of Indigenous peoples.
www.dukeupress.edu/another-face...
www.dukeupress.edu/an-account-o...

Cover of Another Face of Empire: Bartolomé de Las Casas, Indigenous Rights, and Ecclesiastical Imperialism by Daniel Castro

Cover of An Account of the Antiquities of the Indians
A New Edition, with an Introductory Study, Notes, and Appendices by José Juan Arrom

5 3

Adriana Darielle Mejía Briscoe @adrianabriscoe.bsky.social · 1d

Book loot from the Quiet Quail book booth at the Riverside Book Festival. And Dad. ❤️ #Inlandia

Reposted by Adriana Darielle Mejía Briscoe

Gabino Iglesias @gabino.bsky.social · 1d

What are y’all reading and watching this weekend?

45 2 28

Adriana Darielle Mejía Briscoe @adrianabriscoe.bsky.social · 1d

My dad’s (Peter Briscoe’s) new book BETWEEN MEMORY AND OBLIVION. losangelesbookreview.com/review/betwe...

1

Adriana Darielle Mejía Briscoe @adrianabriscoe.bsky.social · 1d

This Banned Books Week (October 5–11, 2025), join EveryLibrary and We Believe in standing up for every reader’s right to read and access every story.

action.everylibrary.org/bookbanpledge via @everylibrary.bsky.social

Pledge to Protect the Freedom to Read

This Banned Books Week (October 5–11, 2025), join EveryLibrary and We Believe in standing up for every reader’s right to read and access every story.

action.everylibrary.org

Adriana Darielle Mejía Briscoe @adrianabriscoe.bsky.social · 1d

All ready with dad for the inaugural Riverside Book Fair! Excited to be supporting Riverside’s growing literary scene. Come join us! Riverside Main Library, 11 a.m. to 6 p.m, 3900 Mission Inn Avenue, Riverside, CA #bookloverscommunity #books 📚

1

Adriana Darielle Mejía Briscoe @adrianabriscoe.bsky.social · 2d

LOST SCIENCE: "A lot of our knowledge about pollinators is about agriculture. But if we didn’t have a diversity of native insects, native plants might not reproduce effectively, and that would reduce food for tons of other wildlife." www.nytimes.com/2025/10/08/s...

She Studied How Logging Affects Pollinators

www.nytimes.com

2

Adriana Darielle Mejía Briscoe @adrianabriscoe.bsky.social · 2d

Excited to be participating in Riverside's first-ever book fair today with my dad!

Adriana Darielle Mejía Briscoe @adrianabriscoe.bsky.social · 3d

Tomorrow, Saturday, Oct 11 at the Inlandia, Riverside Book Fair, 11 a.m. - 6 p.m., Riverside Main Library, I will be helping my dad sell signed copies of his fantastic new book, BETWEEN MEMORY AND OBLIVION, and his short story collection, THE BOOKSELLER. Come join us! bookshop.org/p/books/betw...

Between Memory and Oblivion

Check out Between Memory and Oblivion - <p>Michael Ashe, a young antiquarian bookseller in Los Angeles, must confront the fact that his once-thriving business is collapsing. Even librarians have turne...

bookshop.org

2

Adriana Darielle Mejía Briscoe @adrianabriscoe.bsky.social · 2d

For Latinx Heritage month, a new article from me that considers the political and economic forces that drove my family to migrate to the U.S. Please email me for a pdf. Leaving Michoacán: My Family’s Migration Ahead of the Mexican Revolution url: read.dukeupress.edu/meridians/ar...

Leaving Michoacán: My Family’s Migration Ahead of the Mexican Revolution

Abstract. The author reflects on her great-grandmother’s migration from a hacienda in Michoacán, Mexico, in the early 1900s to an ethnically segregated Mexican American community within the city of Co...

read.dukeupress.edu

Reposted by Adriana Darielle Mejía Briscoe

Kathleen Clark @kathleenclark.bsky.social · 2d

A master class from MIT in responding to authoritarian overreach:

Your “premise … is inconsistent with our core belief that scientific funding should be based on scientific merit alone.
… America’s leadership in science & innovation depends on independent thinking & open competition for excellence.

Dear Madam Secretary,
I write in response to your letter of October 1, inviting MIT to review a "Compact for Academic Excellence in Higher Education." I acknowledge the vital importance of these matters.
I appreciated the chance to meet with you earlier this year to discuss the priorities we share for American higher education.
As we discussed, the Institute's mission of service to the nation directs us to advance knowledge, educate students and bring knowledge to bear on the world's great challenges.
We do that in line with a clear set of values, with excellence above all. Some practical examples:
• MIT prides itself on rewarding merit. Students, faculty and staff succeed here based on the strength of their talent, ideas and hard work. For instance, the Institute was the first to reinstate the SAT/ACT requirement after the pandemic. And MIT has never had legacy preferences in admissions.
• MIT opens its doors to the most talented students regardless of their family's finances. Admissions are need-blind. Incoming undergraduates whose families earn less than $200,000 a year pay no tuition. Nearly 88% of our last graduating class left MIT with no debt for their education. We make a wealth of free courses and low-cost certificates available to any American with an internet connection. Of the undergraduate degrees we award, 94% are in STEM fields. And in service to the nation, we cap enrollment of international undergraduates at roughly 10%.

source:
https://orgchart.mit.edu/letters/regarding-compact

• We value free expression, as clearly described in the MIT Statement on Freedom of Expression and Academic Freedom. We must hear facts and opinions we don't like - and engage respectfully with those with whom we disagree.
These values and other MIT practices meet or exceed many standards outlined in the document you sent. We freely choose these values because they're right, and we live by them because they support our mission - work of immense value to the prosperity, competitiveness, health and security of the United States. And of course, MIT abides by the law.
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.
In our view, America's leadership in science and innovation depends on independent thinking and open competition for excellence. In that free marketplace of ideas, the people of MIT gladly compete with the very best, without preferences. Therefore, with respect, we cannot support the proposed approach to addressing the issues facing higher education.
As you know, MIT's record of service to the nation is long and enduring. Eight decades ago, MIT leaders helped invent a scientific partnership between America's research universities and the U.S. government that has delivered extraordinary benefits for the American people. We continue to believe in the power of this partnership to serve the nation.
Sincerely,
Sally Kornbluth

7 350 1.1K

Adriana Darielle Mejía Briscoe @adrianabriscoe.bsky.social · 2d

👀
www.latimes.com/california/s...

Commentary: Former bracero doesn't want the program to return. 'People will be treated like slaves'

I wanted to hear Alvarado’s insights at a time where farmers are pleading with President Trump to stop his deportation tsunami because crops are rotting in the fields.

www.latimes.com

Adriana Darielle Mejía Briscoe @adrianabriscoe.bsky.social · 2d

Fascinating profile of the daughter of my favorite doctor. www.nytimes.com/2025/10/08/s...

Lauren Greenfield on the Sad, Dark Kingdom of the Rich

www.nytimes.com

1 1

Adriana Darielle Mejía Briscoe @adrianabriscoe.bsky.social · 3d

bookshop.org/p/books/the-...

The Bookseller: Stories

Stories

bookshop.org

Adriana Darielle Mejía Briscoe @adrianabriscoe.bsky.social · 3d

Tomorrow, Saturday, Oct 11 at the Inlandia, Riverside Book Fair, 11 a.m. - 6 p.m., Riverside Main Library, I will be helping my dad sell signed copies of his fantastic new book, BETWEEN MEMORY AND OBLIVION, and his short story collection, THE BOOKSELLER. Come join us! bookshop.org/p/books/betw...

Between Memory and Oblivion

Check out Between Memory and Oblivion - <p>Michael Ashe, a young antiquarian bookseller in Los Angeles, must confront the fact that his once-thriving business is collapsing. Even librarians have turne...

bookshop.org

1

Adriana Darielle Mejía Briscoe @adrianabriscoe.bsky.social · 3d

Happy to see Tommy Orange recognized for his powerful depictions of urban Indians and the complex landscape of their lives. ictnews.org/arts-enterta...

Native author Tommy Orange among 22 artists, scientists and authors to receive $800,000 MacArthur ‘genius grant' - ICT

The John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation announced its 2025 class of fellows on Wednesday

ictnews.org

Adriana Darielle Mejía Briscoe @adrianabriscoe.bsky.social · 3d

Marla Ramírez has written an important new book—BANISHED CITIZENS—about the hundreds of thousands of people of Mexican descent, 60% U.S. citizens, who were banished from the U.S. during the last major episode of Mexican scapegoating in the 1920s and 1930s. www.hup.harvard.edu/books/978067...

Banished Citizens — Harvard University Press

A moving portrait of a grim period in American immigration history, when approximately one million ethnic Mexicans—mostly women and children who were US citizens—were forced to relocate across the sou...

www.hup.harvard.edu

1

Reposted by Adriana Darielle Mejía Briscoe

Carl Zimmer @carlzimmer.com · 4d

Today my @nytimes.com colleagues and I are launching a new series called Lost Science. We interview US scientists who can no longer discover something new about our world, thanks to this year‘s cuts. Here is my first interview with a scientist who studied bees and fires. Gift link: nyti.ms/3IWXbiE

nyti.ms

140 1.8K 4.7K

Adriana Darielle Mejía Briscoe @adrianabriscoe.bsky.social · 6d

Amazing story, Márcio!

1 1

Reposted by Adriana Darielle Mejía Briscoe

Márcio Zikán Cardoso @zikan.bsky.social · 6d

Today´s Guardian has an article about our study on butterfly colors, where we compare butterfly colors in native forest to those in eucalyptus plantations. This is study is a partnership between labs from Denmark, Spain, and Brazil.
www.theguardian.com/environment/...

As forests are cut down, butterflies are losing their colours

The insects’ brilliant hues evolved in lush ecosystems to help them survive. Now they are becoming more muted to adapt to degraded landscapes – and they are not the only things dulling down

www.theguardian.com

2 8 27

Reposted by Adriana Darielle Mejía Briscoe

Paul Rainey @paulbrainey.bsky.social · 7d

Two new positions are available at the MPI for Evolutionary Biology to support development of our genomics facility. Both stand to become permanent. Both offer a ton of opportunity to engage in a wide range of creative science.

Pls repost 🙏

www.evolbio.mpg.de/3838377/job_...

Two full-time positions | Bioinformatician (m/f/d) + Applications Specialist (m/f/d) - Molecular Biology

The Genome Facility at the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Biology in Plön is seeking to fill two positions (full time) to support and expand our core facility services.

www.evolbio.mpg.de

1 31 19

Reposted by Adriana Darielle Mejía Briscoe

Astrobites @astrobites.bsky.social · 7d

In this bite, the Astrobites authors discuss recent changes to the NSF’s Graduate Research Fellowship, their impact, and what you can do to help. 🔭✨☄️
astrobites.org/2025/10/04/n...

Big Changes to the NSF’s Graduate Fellowship Mean Big Problems

In this bite, the authors discuss recent changes to the NSF's Graduate Research Fellowship, their impact, and what you can do to help.

astrobites.org

8 22

Adriana Darielle Mejía Briscoe @adrianabriscoe.bsky.social · 7d

"Growing up in Los Angeles, Karla Tatiana Vasquez says it was always a thrill seeing flor de izote in the kitchen — the delicate, cream-colored blossoms of the giant yucca." www.npr.org/2025/09/29/n...

A ubiquitous flower in LA is a reminder of homeland for a Salvadoran chef

At this time of year, the flor de izote blooms in Los Angeles. The Salvadoran-American chef Karla Tatiana Vasquez says the flowers are both a delicacy and a connection to her identity.

www.npr.org