Lightnews — Scholar-powered news

Reposted by Ibrahim Khan

@laskerfdn.bsky.social

Arthur L. Horwich won a #LaskerAward for his work on chaperone-assisted protein folding, a fundamental biological process. 🧪
We wish him a happy birthday today!
https://ow.ly/wiX050XR7gJ
https://ow.ly/vCir50XR7gH

January 4, 2026 at 4:30 PM

Ibrahim Khan

@iakhan13.bsky.social

Niall Ferguson: Maduro’s Capture Takes Us Back to the Future
www.thefp.com/p/niall-ferg...

Niall Ferguson: Maduro’s Capture Takes Us Back to the Future

Interventions in Latin America. Tariffs. Antisemitism. Socialism. Corruption. Vaccines. Arms races. Welcome to the politics of 1900, writes Niall Ferguson.

www.thefp.com

January 4, 2026 at 4:49 PM

Ibrahim Khan

@iakhan13.bsky.social

LETTERS FROM LOVE from @lizgilbert.bsky.social — With Special Guest Jane Chen! open.substack.com/pub/elizabet...

LETTERS FROM LOVE — With Special Guest Jane Chen!

Surrender before the crash

open.substack.com

January 4, 2026 at 4:47 PM

Ibrahim Khan

@iakhan13.bsky.social

‘Journey to the West’: Why the classic Chinese novel’s mischievous monkey – and his very human quest – has inspired centuries of adaptations
theconversation.com/journey-to-t...

‘Journey to the West’: Why the classic Chinese novel’s mischievous monkey – and his very human quest – has inspired centuries of adaptations

There is a long tradition in China of associating monkeys with the mind – symbolism that has helped the novel’s most memorable character, the Monkey King, find universal resonance.

theconversation.com

January 4, 2026 at 3:22 PM

Ibrahim Khan

@iakhan13.bsky.social

3 things to learn about patience − and impatience − from al-Ghazali, a medieval Islamic scholar
theconversation.com/3-things-to-...

3 things to learn about patience − and impatience − from al-Ghazali, a medieval Islamic scholar

In religious traditions, patience is more than waiting, or even more than enduring a hardship. But what does patience look like? And when should we not exercise patience?

theconversation.com

January 4, 2026 at 3:21 PM

Ibrahim Khan

@iakhan13.bsky.social

The Nutrient Most People Are Missing for Better Sleep
open.substack.com/pub/zenithwi...

The Nutrient Most People Are Missing for Better Sleep

Quick Health Tip #55

open.substack.com

January 4, 2026 at 3:18 PM

Ibrahim Khan

@iakhan13.bsky.social

The Borowitz Report Turns 25
open.substack.com/pub/borowitz...

The Borowitz Report Turns 25

A quarter century of making up the news.

open.substack.com

January 4, 2026 at 3:05 PM

Ibrahim Khan

@iakhan13.bsky.social

Things Worth Remembering: Orwell Saw This Coming
www.thefp.com/p/things-wor...

Things Worth Remembering: Orwell Saw This Coming

Days after Zohran Mamdani was sworn in as mayor, Orwell’s ‘The Road to Wigan Pier’ feels more relevant than ever, writes Charles Lane.

www.thefp.com

January 4, 2026 at 12:19 PM

Reposted by Ibrahim Khan

Quanta Magazine

@quantamagazine.bsky.social

In the 1960s, Christopher Zeeman helped popularize catastrophe theory. It was all the rage; people called on it to describe everything from bridge collapses to prison riots to regime changes. The hype soon fizzled. But the underlying concepts didn’t. www.quantamagazine.org/the-math-of-...

December 28, 2025 at 4:46 PM

Reposted by Ibrahim Khan

Quanta Magazine

@quantamagazine.bsky.social

Paleoclimatologist Jessica Tierney recently published a global temperature record covering almost the past half-billion years. According to her model, 50 million years ago, inland temperatures approached 122 degrees Fahrenheit. www.quantamagazine.org/climate-extr...

December 29, 2025 at 9:04 PM

Reposted by Ibrahim Khan

Quanta Magazine

@quantamagazine.bsky.social

Snow guns used at ski resorts spray water into the air mixed with an ice-nucleating agent, often proteins from the bacterium 𝘗𝘴𝘦𝘶𝘥𝘰𝘮𝘰𝘯𝘢𝘴 𝘴𝘺𝘳𝘪𝘯𝘨𝘢𝘦.

The Enduring Mystery of How Water Freezes | Quanta Magazine

Making ice requires more than subzero temperatures. The unpredictable process takes microscopic scaffolding, random jiggling and often a little bit of bacteria.

www.quantamagazine.org

January 1, 2026 at 4:46 PM

Reposted by Ibrahim Khan

Quanta Magazine

@quantamagazine.bsky.social

AI is nothing like the brain. And that’s okay.

The Year in Biology | Quanta Magazine

Take a jaunt through a jungle of strange neurons underlying your sense of touch, hundreds of millions of years of animal evolution and the dense neural networks of brains and AIs.

www.quantamagazine.org

January 2, 2026 at 4:46 PM

Ibrahim Khan

@iakhan13.bsky.social

January 3, 2026
open.substack.com/pub/heatherc...

January 3, 2026

Today was the legal deadline for the Department of Justice to submit to Congress a written justification for any documents from the Epstein files that the department had redacted or withheld.

open.substack.com

January 4, 2026 at 9:01 AM

Ibrahim Khan

@iakhan13.bsky.social

"Blow Winds! And Crack Your Cheeks. Rage! Blow!"
open.substack.com/pub/petermoo...

"Blow Winds! And Crack Your Cheeks. Rage! Blow!"

Hurricane-force winds pummeled Colorado for days. A cartoonist digs in to explain why that weather was so bad. WRITTEN & ILLUSTRATED by PETER MOORE, special to THE COLORADO SUN

open.substack.com

January 4, 2026 at 4:26 AM

Ibrahim Khan

@iakhan13.bsky.social

The War of Art and R.I.P. Craig
open.substack.com/pub/richardb...

The War of Art and R.I.P. Craig

The War of Art and the Passing of Craig

open.substack.com

January 4, 2026 at 4:13 AM

Reposted by Ibrahim Khan

Mike Rosenwald

@mikerosenwald.bsky.social

She stubbornly refused to follow popular artistic trends. Instead, she spent decades exploring the effects of light on glass. www.nytimes.com/2026/01/01/a...

Janet Fish, Painter of Luminous Still Lifes, Dies at 87

www.nytimes.com

January 1, 2026 at 7:44 PM

Reposted by Ibrahim Khan

The New York Times

@nytimes.com

Hours after the U.S. captured Venezuela’s president, Nicolás Maduro, President Trump said the U.S. would “run the country” and access Venezuela’s oil reserves. Follow live updates. trib.al/KvlfOwL

President Trump speaks at a lectern with the presidential seal. A headline reads: "U.S. Will 'Run' Venezuela And Sell Its Oil, Trump Says." Photo by Tierney L. Cross/The New York Times.

January 3, 2026 at 6:35 PM

Reposted by Ibrahim Khan

The New York Times

@nytimes.com

President Trump appears to be counting heavily on U.S. intervention in the oil industry to help transform Venezuela, a proposition that could prove to be complicated and expensive. Here’s what to know about the country’s oil industry.

What to Know About Venezuela’s Oil Industry as Trump Plans U.S. Intervention

Venezuela claims to have more than 300 billion barrels in the ground, but it is only producing about one million barrels a day.

nyti.ms

January 3, 2026 at 10:15 PM

Reposted by Ibrahim Khan

The New York Times

@nytimes.com

The capture of President Nicolás Maduro of Venezuela and President Trump’s declaration that the U.S. will “run the country” for now raise a host of extraordinary legal issues at the intersection of international law and presidential power. Here is a closer look.

Is It Legal for U.S. to ‘Run’ Venezuela After Maduro’s Capture? Here’s What to Know.

The operation revives disputes over the legality of the 1989 Panama intervention, enhanced by President Trump’s vow to “run” Venezuela and Nicolás Maduro’s formal status as president.

nyti.ms

January 3, 2026 at 11:10 PM

Reposted by Ibrahim Khan

The New Yorker

@newyorker.com

In 1929, The New Yorker called an actress’s memoir “vivid, rich, and vigorous.” It was almost entirely fictitious. www.newyorker.com/culture/the-...

Joan Lowell and the Birth of the Modern Literary Fraud

A century ago, an aspiring actress published a remarkable autobiography. She made up most of it.

www.newyorker.com

January 3, 2026 at 4:30 PM

Reposted by Ibrahim Khan

The New Yorker

@newyorker.com

Donald Trump has long said that he wanted Nicolás Maduro out of power, branding him a narco-terrorist and placing a $50-million bounty on his head. What’s next for Venezuela now that Maduro has been captured?

www.newyorker.com/news/the-led...