Author | Lightnews

Roxanne Prichard, PhD @roxanneprichard.bsky.social · 4d

This is so sad, but completely understandable. I'd say at least half of my U.S. born students who are interested in science grad schools are looking for opportunities outside the United States. I'm sorry.

Btw: my first neuroscience undergrad student was in that lab for his post doc! (K. Hengen)

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Roxanne Prichard, PhD @roxanneprichard.bsky.social · 5d

This is fantastic-- I'm showing this in my classes this week.

Stacey Ogden 🦔 @labogden.bsky.social · 5d

Share widely - especially with your friends and family who aren't in science! 🧪

www.youtube.com/watch?v=yLvO...

Top researchers consider leaving U.S. amid funding cuts: 'The science world is ending'

YouTube video by PBS NewsHour

www.youtube.com

Roxanne Prichard, PhD @roxanneprichard.bsky.social · 12d

This reminds me of the paper one of my grad school cohort did when he noticed the rats were extra interested in his chocolate protein shakes. Rats "addiction" circuits are activated in a chocolate paired environment. pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/11516821/

A common profile of prefrontal cortical activation following exposure to nicotine- or chocolate-associated contextual cues - PubMed

Conditioning and learning factors are likely to play key roles in the process of addiction and in relapse to drug use. In nicotine addiction, for example, contextual cues associated with smoking can be powerful determinants of craving and relapse, even after considerable periods of abstinence. Using …

pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov

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Roxanne Prichard, PhD @roxanneprichard.bsky.social · 13d

Excited to stay at the home with the newmexicosundial.com while at the Mentoring Conference! How do we keep this clock on time? Permanent Standard Time.

Roxanne Prichard, PhD @roxanneprichard.bsky.social · 13d

I'm at a mentoring conference in New Mexico, and enjoying getting away from the light pollution. This photoperiod extending space mirror plan- brighter than the moon!- has so many risks for sleep health and ecology. @darkskyintl.bsky.social @savestandard.bsky.social

www.space.com/space-explor...

Company's plan to launch 4,000 space mirrors alarms scientists

Reflect Orbital says their light-on-demand idea has generated significant interest from commercial and government customers.

www.space.com

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Roxanne Prichard, PhD @roxanneprichard.bsky.social · 17d

No Kings!

San Juan Co.

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Roxanne Prichard, PhD @roxanneprichard.bsky.social · 17d

No kings!

#NoKings

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Roxanne Prichard, PhD @roxanneprichard.bsky.social · 20d

The host just couldn’t let go of that concept. One life with them was enough, thank you.

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Roxanne Prichard, PhD @roxanneprichard.bsky.social · 22d

Observing Indigenous People’s Day on Wahpekute land in Minnesota, Dakota for “Sky-colored water”.

Roxanne Prichard, PhD @roxanneprichard.bsky.social · 23d

As a sleep researcher, I know Black and Indigenous (and queer folks) have more exhaustion & trouble relaxing into and maintaining sleep. During talks, white audiences will sometimes ask what it is genetically that accounts for the sleep disturbance. It's not the melanin; it's the oppression.

Imani Gandied Yams @angryblacklady.blacksky.app · 27d

"Black people are tired. Not metaphorically tired—actually tired. The kind of tired that turns every group chat into a mix of gallows humor and emotional triage."

I write about white ignorance and how exhausting it is to hear white ppl insist "this isn't who we are, when it's ALWAYS who we've been.

White People’s Performative Ignorance Is Exhausting—Opinion

Disbelief over authoritarianism in America isn’t a cutesy personality trait. It’s a confession: You haven’t been paying attention.

rewirenewsgroup.com

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Roxanne Prichard, PhD @roxanneprichard.bsky.social · 25d

This reminds me of how much I loved @naomialderman.bsky.social's never-more-relevant novel "The Future". We studied her first novel "The Power" in our Neuroscience of Gender course. Any other #WomenInSTEM Alderman fans out there?

Scientists for Global Responsibility @responsiblesci.bsky.social · 25d

Tech billionaires may be ‘doom prepping’, but have they sowed the seeds of their own downfall?

We’re living in an era of global catastrophic risks (climate change, polarisation, AI, and militarisation), in which ‘polluter’ and ‘cyber’ elites have a lot to answer for.🧪

www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...

Tech billionaires seem to be doom prepping. Should we be worried?

The debate is ramping up about what happens if - or when - computer intelligence overtakes humans

www.bbc.co.uk

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Roxanne Prichard, PhD @roxanneprichard.bsky.social · Oct 5

Good sunset, St. Paul!

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Roxanne Prichard, PhD @roxanneprichard.bsky.social · Oct 1

Gotta soak up these warm early fall days when we can. Our Sleep and Circadian Rhythms neuroscience class was held outside today.

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Roxanne Prichard, PhD @roxanneprichard.bsky.social · Sep 30

I'm a sleep scientist, daughter of a space physicist, who studied Latin, and married an artist: of course I need this print!

Ele Willoughby @minouette.bsky.social · Sep 30

Day 30 of #SciArtSeptember 🧪🐡🔭#histsci prompt dream: Kepler’s Somnium. This hand-printed linocut illustrates astronomer and mathematician Johannes Kepler’s science fiction story Somnium, or “The Dream”. Kepler (1571-1630) wrote the strange manuscript in Latin, and circulated it amongst friends, 🧵

My linocut print of Kepler’s Somnium (or Dream) in darkest blue on white with chine collé collaged papers for aliens. It shows the Earth in space viewed from the mountainous moon where a boy and daemon in a cave view the giant serpent like creature (on marbled paper in swirling pink, orange and blue) and three pinecone shaped creatures on pink, peach and turquoise paper.

Roxanne Prichard, PhD @roxanneprichard.bsky.social · Sep 24

I've been teaching about HD in my undergrad neuro classes for 20 years, and it's usually one of the most heart breaking units we cover. THIS IS AMAZING NEWS!!!

#StandUpForScience

Prof Sheena Cruickshank @sheencr.bsky.social · Sep 24

This is very exciting! A small clinical trial using gene therapy for Huntington's disease has been successful. microRNAs were used to edit the Huntington mRNA, stopping it making mutant protein that can damage neurons. Huge hopes now for treating such a devastating condition

Huntington's disease successfully treated for first time

One of the most devastating diseases finally has a treatment that can slow its progression and transform lives, tearful doctors tell BBC.

www.bbc.co.uk

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Roxanne Prichard, PhD @roxanneprichard.bsky.social · Sep 24

I've been teaching about HD in my undergrad neuro classes for 20 years, and it's usually one of the most heart breaking units we cover. THIS IS AMAZING!!!

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Roxanne Prichard, PhD @roxanneprichard.bsky.social · Sep 20

Cancelled Disney+ and now thoroughly enjoying the @criterion.bsky.social collection. Our porch orb-weaver approves notes they have an excellent October lineup. #1A

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Roxanne Prichard, PhD @roxanneprichard.bsky.social · Sep 20

This is worse than the McCarthy era.

Laura Sell @laurasell.bsky.social · Sep 19

"More professors in the United States have been fired for controversial views in the past week than any other week in all of American history."
www.insidehighered.com/opinion/colu...

Censorship Is the Authoritarian’s Dream

The right to free expression must include the right to say horrible and evil things.

www.insidehighered.com

Roxanne Prichard, PhD @roxanneprichard.bsky.social · Sep 20

My Very Own Bed is a Twin Cities nonprofit that gets beds and bedding to families indeed. Students in our Neuroscience of Sleep class volunteered this week assembling bed frames. MVOB has delivered over 10,000 beds to local kids in need. Good health starts with good sleep.

www.myveryownbed.org

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Roxanne Prichard, PhD @roxanneprichard.bsky.social · Sep 19

AAC&U Transforming STEM education is one of my favorite conferences. Thank you for this year's theme: THIS AIN'T OVER!!!

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Roxanne Prichard, PhD @roxanneprichard.bsky.social · Sep 18

In our First Year Experience course today, the topic was sleep! I love that sleep health is part of every first year's formal education. To get more circadian morning sun, I asked the students spend 15 minutes of class on our beautiful @uofstthomasmn.bsky.social campus & send photo proof.

Photo collage of the University of St. Thomas campus featuring bees, monarch butterflies, trees, succulents, zinnias, and other greenery.

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Roxanne Prichard, PhD @roxanneprichard.bsky.social · Sep 18

This week, I've talked to students who were previously considering PhDs, but no more over funding, outstanding students who are only looking for grad schools in Europe, Australia & Canada, and now jobless former students who have lost their NIH/NSF grad/postdoc funding.

The #BrainDrain is real.

Dr. Sandra Steingraber 🏳️‍🌈 @ssteingraber1.bsky.social · Sep 18

Starting now in DC: funeral procession for the EPA with bagpipe, cello, dirges, a chorus of lamenters, roses, eulogies, and many marching tombstones.

Mine says RIP SCIENCE AND SCIENTISTS. 🧪

More images to follow.

Climate crisis = public health crisis

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Roxanne Prichard, PhD @roxanneprichard.bsky.social · Sep 16

Glad to provide commentary about the new PNAS modeling article by @laraweed.bsky.social about how permanent standard time vs. permanent daylight saving time vs. biannual switching impacts population level health by county. @savestandard.bsky.social

www.scientificamerican.com/article/nixi...

Hate Daylight Saving Time? Our Body Clock Might Prefer Permanent Standard Time

A new study suggests that permanent standard time may reduce obesity and stroke

www.scientificamerican.com

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Roxanne Prichard, PhD @roxanneprichard.bsky.social · Sep 9

"“The biggest link to happiness, and the biggest link to depression, is sleep — always,” Twenge said."

www.nytimes.com/2025/09/06/w...

She Started the Debate About Kids and Phones. Now She Wants to End It.

www.nytimes.com

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Roxanne Prichard, PhD @roxanneprichard.bsky.social · Sep 8

Might be a good time to re-read Der Schwarm (Frank Schätzin).

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