Lightnews — Scholar-powered news

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Dr Izzy Wisher @izzywisher.bsky.social · 14d

Time to update your Palaeolithic palettes... 🔵

Very proud to share our new research on the OLDEST use of blue pigment! We identified traces of azurite - a vibrant blue mineral - on a stone object around 14-13,000 years old. Why is this so exciting? 👇🏺

doi.org/10.15184/aqy...

Close-up image of a sand coloured stone, with a diagonal crack. The sand rock has a textured surface, and small spots of blue can be seen towards the centre of the stone. The background is grey.

Microscopic photo of the blue spots, that are irregular in shape and size and positioned diagonally across the image. The rest of the photo shows the rough sand coloured texture of the stone.

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Open Research at York @uoyopenres.bsky.social · 1h

Research Coding Club is back 🧑‍💻

The theme of the new training programme is how FAIR (Findable Accessible, Interoperable, Reusable) principles can be applied to research software, from version control to packaging and software lifecycle planning to testing and continuous integration

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EGU Biogeosciences Division (BG) @egubg.bsky.social · 2h

🗞️ New article in Biogeosciences #EGU by Tim R. de Groot et al. ⬇️

Adaptation of methane-oxidizing bacteria to environmental changes: implications for coastal methane dynamics

Abstract. Global warming induces alterations in ocean temperature regimes, as well as in precipitation patterns. This leads to shifts in water column properties, which will increasingly impact…

bg.copernicus.org

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Roberto Sáez @handle.invalid · 22h

Widespread evidence of Middle Stone Age (MSA) presence in Equatorial Guinea (West-Central Atlantic Africa)

Understanding the evolutionary history of humans in the rainforest ecosystems of West Central Africa remains a challenge, despite the region's signifi…

doi.org

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Dr Paul Dorfman @drpauldorfman.bsky.social · 1d

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Pam McElwee @pammcelwee.bsky.social · 6d

Please join USAA-IPCC and @agu.org next week for a webinar on how to engage with @ipcc.bsky.social reports as an Expert Reviewer! The Special Report on Cities and Climate Change opens for first review on Oct 17 - we'll discuss in our webinar how to register and what makes for good review comments.

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Ian Hall @ianhall.bsky.social · 3h

Climate tipping points sound scary, especially for ice sheets and oceans – here’s why there’s still room for optimism

theconversation.com/climate-tipp...

Climate tipping points sound scary, especially for ice sheets and oceans – here’s why there’s still room for optimism

A report warns that coral reefs may have reached their tipping point, and ice sheets, ocean currents and the Amazon are at growing risk. But, what does that actually mean?

theconversation.com

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Stewie Stewart @stewiestewart.bsky.social · 6h

Ancient microbial DNA and proteins preserve in concretions covering human remains

Archaeological remains covered with concretions, including human bones, are commonly found in certain areas and time periods of interest for understan…

www.sciencedirect.com

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Wonkhe @wonkhe.bsky.social · 3d

NEW on Wonkhe: What looks like efficiency in UK higher education often masks systemic injustice. Jim Dickinson explores how policies around reassessment quietly entrench inequality buff.ly/89mzFbe

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All On The Board @allontheboard.bsky.social · 3d

Today is World Mental Health Day. It’s a day that should be every day of the year. You are worthwhile, and you deserve to be here.

#WorldMentalHealthDay #WMHD25 #MentalHealth

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Dr Kat Day (she/her) @chronicleflask.katday.com · 3d

There are hundreds of years of history of women’s scientific accomplishments not being recognised or being minimised (“not notable”). It *still* happens. Many female scientists are only acknowledged on Wikipedia thanks to the efforts of, yes, other female scientists, notably physicist Dr Jess Wade.

Prof Anna Watts @profannawatts.bsky.social · 3d

Lol the Nobels can't even acknowledge women's contribution to discovery. But sure let's acknowledge The Machines.

Headline from an article in Nature this week that states "Prizes must recognize machine contributions to discovery. The future of science will be written by humans and machines together. Awards should reflect that reality."

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Prof Christina Pagel @chrischirp.bsky.social · 3d

🧵🚨

The UK’s independent scientific bodies are highly vulnerable to politicisation - over the past 5 months I've been working with @martinmckee.bsky.social to map out their vulnerabilities and it's not good news.

Today our report is published!
www.ucl.ac.uk/policy-lab/n...

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UK’s arm’s length public bodies are highly vulnerable to politicisation

Seven in ten Britons say it is important for top scientific institutions to be independent in exclusive new polling.

www.ucl.ac.uk

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James Murray @james-bg.bsky.social · 3d

That England has had its three worst harvests on record inside the past five years really should be being treated as a much bigger cause for concern than is currently the case. www.businessgreen.com/news/4520171...

'This is what farming with climate change looks like': England endures second worst harvest on record

New analysis confirms three of the five worst harvests on record have occurred in the past five years on the back of extreme heat, drought, and rainfall

www.businessgreen.com

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European Geosciences Union (EGU) @egu.eu · 4d

Are you a #ScienceArtist? We're looking for you to join us at #EGU26!

Applications are now open for EGU’s #Artist in #Residence programme!

📅 Apply by 27 October 2025.
👉 Learn more about the application details & requirements: egu.eu/63Y1BV
📝 Submit your application here: egu.eu/813683

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Antiquity Journal @antiquity.ac.uk · 3d

📰 What was thought to be a Palaeolithic oil lamp was likely in fact a 13,000-year-old paint pallet, and contains the oldest instance of blue pigment in Europe!

🏺 #AntiquityResearch #ArchaeologyNews via @smithsonianmag.bsky.social

www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/t...

These Archaeologists Set Out in Search of Animal Fat. Instead, They Found the Oldest Blue Pigment Ever Discovered in Europe

Blue residue on a 13,000-year-old stone artifact, long believed to be an oil lamp, may paint a new picture of Paleolithic art and culture

www.smithsonianmag.com

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Alex Norwood @alnorwood.bsky.social · 4d

I'm really excited about this new paper, with @dayvees.bsky.social, where we use simulations to explore how herbivore tooth growth and development, demography, and dental wear mediate the seasonal signal preserved in serially sampled teeth!

www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...

Simulating the formation of herbivore tooth death assemblages to improve expectations for paleoenvironmental reconstruction from intra-tooth isotopic analysis

Isotopic analysis of serially-sampled dental enamel from fossil faunal assemblages is a popular paleoenvironmental proxy for its ability to inform on …

www.sciencedirect.com

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Keir Nichols @cosmokeir.bsky.social · 3d

Applications are now open for a Glasgow-based Iapetus DTP project centred on using in situ 14C to study glacier histories in East Antarctica! tinyurl.com/3ddvynn2 @stever60.bsky.social @uofglasgow.bsky.social @iapetusdtp.bsky.social @bas.ac.uk

A person standing on a moraine which is in front of a mountain. The mountain is in East Antarctica, with a small glacier between the mountain and moraine. The person is using a saw to collect a rock sample from the surface of a boulder on top of the moraine.

A photo taken from a mountain in East Antarctica, with moraines and blue ice in the foreground, and the vast East Antarctic Ice Sheet extending to the horizon. Some small mountains (nunataks) are poking out above the surface of the ice sheet at varying distances.

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Stephen Roberts @stever60.bsky.social · 4d

Applications are now open for this years’ BAS Iapetus PhD projects … including one working on our Big Thaw project investigating extreme precipitation in Nepal from sediment core and climate data - more details in this link @iapetusdtp.bsky.social @bas.ac.uk

iapetus.ac.uk/studentships...

Photo of Lake Tilicio in Nepal with an inset core showing our team collecting sediment cores from the lake

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Ed Hawkins @edhawkins.org · 3d

UK air temperatures and soil temperatures are warming at the same rate

climatelabbook.substack.com/p/monitoring...

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ICTA-UAB @icta-uab.bsky.social · 3d

🆕🏭🌿Despite promises fossil fuel giants invest just 1% global renewable energy projects

ICTA-UAB shows that world’s largest oil and gas companies are responsible for just 1.42% of all renewable energy projects worldwide

www.daily-sun.com/post/831910

Despite promises fossil fuel giants invest just 1% global renewable energy projects

www.daily-sun.com

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Royal Society of Chemistry @rsc.org · 4d

❓ How can recognition in chemistry become more inclusive and reflective of modern scientific culture?

🏆Over the past five years we have reshaped our prizes to celebrate a wider range of contributions to chemistry – from teams & educators to technical specialists & early career scientists. #ChemSky

What are the key learning from our report?

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Dr Rachel Pope @prehistorian.bsky.social · 4d

What’s interesting is that women archaeologists do seem to end up in this training role: Tessa Verney Wheeler, Peggy Piggott. A transmutation of the old British idea that women can’t be professionals, but they can teach.

Dr Rachel Pope @prehistorian.bsky.social · 4d

I decided to be a field archaeologist at 5 after visiting the Coppergate excavations. I started digging at 15 but by early 20s realised digging + a family wouldn’t work, so I segued into an academic role where I could at least still train.

I’m still a digger.

Is it okay that women had to leave?

Dr Rachel Pope @prehistorian.bsky.social · 16d

New paper. Recording the female experience of UK archaeology 1990-2010. Anne Teather and I document how an industry EDI agenda evolved in the 1990s and was dismantled, uncovering the ramifications of that for women archaeologists over the next decade.

www.cambridge.org/core/journal...

#openaccess✅

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Margot Finn @eicathomefinn.bsky.social · 3d

Awards of up to £10,000. Deadline Wednesday 5 November 2025, 17:00 (GMT).

Open to researchers in all disciplines and all postdoctoral (or equivalent) career stages.

The call is focused solely on Pillar 2 of Horizon Europe – Global Challenges and European Industrial Competitiveness (see below).

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Tori Herridge @toriherridge.bsky.social · 4d

I am currently very into ice age hippos, and it is actually pretty amazing how much we DON’T know about their chronology given that they are used as a kind of indicator for MIS5e.

Here they are, lolloping about Europe in stage 4, for example (but for me, stage 6 is where I want answers!)

NEaar lab @neaarlab.bsky.social · 4d

Intriguing study just out in @currentbiology.bsky.social led by Patrick Arnold & Michi Hofreiter @unipotsdam.bsky.social showing hippos might have still been roaming central Europe in the last ice age www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti... 🧪🦛#quaternary

Ancient DNA and dating evidence for the dispersal of hippos into central Europe during the last glacial

Late Pleistocene hippo fossils (Hippopotamus amphibius) from Europe have generally been associated with the last interglacial period (Eemian, 129–115 …

https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0960982225012059🧪🦛#quaternary

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Pontus Skoglund @pontus-skoglund.bsky.social · 3d

PhD-opening in our ancient genomics lab this year, apply below!

We work on:
1. Genetic history integrated with archaeology and history
2. Natural selection and trait genetics
3. Evolutionary genomics of dogs and wolves
4. Ancient pathogen genomics
5. Hominin evolution and ancient proteomics

The Francis Crick Institute @crick.ac.uk · 10d

Motivated graduates with backgrounds in biological or biomedical sciences, physics, chemistry, mathematics, engineering and/or computer science are invited to apply to our 4-year fully funded PhD programme.

Apply by 05 November 2025

www.crick.ac.uk/careers-and-...

PhD students

Our PhD programme attracts the brightest scientific minds and is an opportunity for talented people to embark on their career in biomedical research.

www.crick.ac.uk

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