Lightnews — Scholar-powered news

Reposted by Milton Tan

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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Milton Tan @mtanichthys.bsky.social · 15h

Oh great, the 3000+ analyses I ran based on figuring out what the most recent best practice was based on the authors is maybe theoretically better, but resulted in the same conclusion as my process I figured out myself...

Oof

Reposted by Milton Tan

Eric Turkheimer @ent3c.bsky.social · 1d

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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Milton Tan @mtanichthys.bsky.social · 16h

Man, I wrote so much code based on the most ridiculous nested object structure. I am now going back through and unnesting the object and while it makes the code simpler it's taking a while...

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Reposted by Milton Tan

Reuters @reuters.com · 19h

NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory to lay off about 550 workers reut.rs/4302N2L

NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory to lay off about 550 workers

NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory said on Monday it will cut nearly 550 jobs as part of a restructuring, not related to the current U.S. government shutdown.

reut.rs

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Jeremy Berg @jeremymberg.bsky.social · 1d

This is a powerful account from a PhD student whose fellowship was terminated by NIH because it was part of a "diversity" program without any other considerations or understanding of what the program or the students were actually doing.

undark.org/2025/10/09/o...

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NIH Student Grant Cancellation Will Weaken Scientific Innovation

The termination of federal F31 diversity fellowships puts many graduate students in a bind — and U.S. science at risk.

undark.org

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Reposted by Milton Tan

Daniel Bolnick @danielbolnick.bsky.social · 18h

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闵娅(Min Ya; Minya) PhD @minyaaa.bsky.social · 19h

Ran into these AMAZING Stapelia grandiflora in our conservatory today. The patterns, colors, hairs, and the smell - carrion mimic to perfection. #Stapelia #plantjoy #iamabotanist

A close up of one flower showing red hairs and petal with yellow strips

Another close up from a slightly diff angle

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Reposted by Milton Tan

franz @franzanth.bsky.social · 22h

it's interesting how languages adopt plant/animal names from various different sources. some get local translations, some get butchered hard, some get accepted as is.

feels like each name has its own, long history on how it got to the other side of the planet.

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Milton Tan @mtanichthys.bsky.social · 19h

Celebrating names is the purpose of websites of Etyfish, which are very much appreciate for scientific names, but we don't have a version for common names, which can definitely have their own interesting histories etyfish.org

The ETYFish Project

Fish Name Etymology Database © Christopher Scharpf

etyfish.org

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Reposted by Milton Tan

Sean A. S. Anderson 🍉 @seananderson.bsky.social · 20h

Now available in Systematic Biology, a new paper (and R package) in which we outline an approach to account for non-independence in comparative analyses of lineage-pair traits academic.oup.com/sysbio/advan...

The Comparative Analysis of Lineage-Pair Traits

Abstract. For many questions in ecology and evolution, the most relevant data to consider are attributes of lineage pairs. Comparative tests for causal rel

academic.oup.com

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Reposted by Milton Tan

Dr. Elizabeth Santos @lizmillermacroevo.bsky.social · 20h

TL/DR: Anyone interested in comparing evolution across fishes should consider deep-benthic and deep-pelagic environments as distinct entities

All images in thread from NOAA Digital Collections @noaacomms.noaa.gov

school of deep-sea lanternfishes emitting bioluminescence

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Reposted by Milton Tan

Dr. Elizabeth Santos @lizmillermacroevo.bsky.social · 20h

New paper on deep-sea fish diversity out now in @sse-evolution.bsky.social, with @cmartinez.bsky.social and @sarahtfried.bsky.social

academic.oup.com/evolut/advan...

Distinct evolutionary signatures underlie body shape diversity across deep sea habitats

Abstract. The deep sea is known for extreme biological conditions such as high pressure, little-to-no solar light and cold temperatures. Despite these chal

academic.oup.com

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Reposted by Milton Tan

Matt Friedman @friedmanlab.bsky.social · 21h

It's a bird! It's a plane! No, it's SUPERFISH!

Coming soon to a museum near you.

Small museum exhibit being installed. Background features comic-book inspired layout. A model of a snakehead fish is in an upper case, with 3D prints of fish skulls in a case at the side.

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Reposted by Milton Tan

KOJAMF🤘🖤🤘 @kojamf.bsky.social · 1d

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Dr. Jaimi Gray @jaimiagray.bsky.social · 21h

When you visit Friday Harbor Labs, @fishguy.bsky.social always has cool fish to discuss 🐟 Last week we pondered the horned searobin (Bellator militaris), & what its spines could be for. CT scan available on MorphoSource for you to explore
www.morphosource.org/media/000027546
Images made in 3D Slicer

Colored rendering of a CT scan of Bellator militaris, in anterior and anterolateral view

Colored rendering of a CT scan of Bellator militaris, in dorsal, left lateral, and ventral views

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Reposted by Milton Tan

Dr. Solomon David @solomonrdavid.bsky.social · 1d

🎶Here Comes the Gar🎵

Hope this starts your week off well!

Reminder #GarWeek is coming November 3-7!

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Reposted by Milton Tan

Josef Uyeda @pseudacris.bsky.social · 1d

More on rate-scaling in phenotypic evolution, pointing toward biological explanations, from Brune Kinneberg & Voje. Lots of debate about this pattern, but comes down to how we define "noise" vs. "biology" as represented in models. Important philosophical discussion.
academic.oup.com/evolut/advan...

Rate-time scaling in phenotypic evolution: Limitations of current models in capturing temporal dynamics

Abstract. Evolutionary rates correlate negatively with time, which makes it complicated to compare rates across lineages that have diversified on different

academic.oup.com

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Andrew D Thaler @drandrewthaler.bsky.social · 1d

First oarfish sighting in Sri Lanka highlights citizen science in marine protection

news.mongabay.com/2025/10/firs...

First oarfish sighting in Sri Lanka highlights citizen science in marine protection

COLOMBO — In the shadowy depths of the ocean lives a ribbon-like giant crowned with a fiery red crest — long mistaken for a sea monster. Rarely glimpsed alive, the oarfish holds the record as the worl...

news.mongabay.com

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Reposted by Milton Tan

Erik Stokstad @erikstokstad.bsky.social · 1d

Yo-ho-ho and many, many bottles of rum.

www.science.org/content/arti...

DNA from rum-soaked fishes chronicles century of environmental change

Museum specimens collected during a 1907 marine expedition reveal loss of genetic diversity in the Philippines

www.science.org

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Reposted by Milton Tan

Adam Summers @fishguy.bsky.social · 2d

I know you are curious about replacement teeth. Seven replacements on each side of the rhinoceros viper. Whoa!!

🧪🐡

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Reposted by Milton Tan

Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences @pnas.org · 1d

The modularity of skulls of Antarctic icefishes enabled rapid evolutionary changes to individual modules—e.g., the neurocranium and the maxilla—allowing the fish to diversify and respond to ecological challenges in the frigid Southern Ocean. In PNAS: https://ow.ly/J7HG50XaAek

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Reposted by Milton Tan

Fredrik Jutfelt 🐠 @jutfelt.bsky.social · 23h

I think my PhD students want me to resign

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Milton Tan @mtanichthys.bsky.social · 21h

Thanks, you've been reading some cool papers and we've ended up reading some of these for our lab meetings, so appreciate your added insight into the discussions.

Reposted by Milton Tan

Brian O'Meara @omearabrian.bsky.social · 1d

Finally posted blog posts on our latest phylogenetics readings in our modern phylo class:

Phylogeography

Simulation

Behavior & Genomics

Reticulate evolution

All in series: brianomeara.info/blog.html#ca...

#Evolution 🧪

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