Short Takes – 10-8-25

‘Horrible’ message: Republican slams White House threat to withhold furloughed workers’ back pay. Newsbreak.com article. Pull quote: “The draft memo circulated by the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) uses an unusual reading of the Government Employee Fair Treatment Act of 2019 to argue that only federal workers deemed essential employees are automatically due back pay.”

This black hole flipped its magnetic field. ScienceNews.org article. Pull quote: ““I was very surprised to see evidence for such a significant change in M87’s magnetic field over a few years,” says astrophysicist Jess McIver of the University of British Columbia in Vancouver, who was not involved with the research. “This changes my thinking about the stability of supermassive black holes and their environments.””

Staph bacteria are bad at letting go. ScienceNews.org article. Pull quote: “Bernardi and colleagues used microscopy and computer simulations to analyze the molecular handshake between a bacterial protein called SdrD and a human protein called DSG-1 in lab dishes. In the presence of calcium, the two proteins could withstand forces stronger than 2 nanonewtons, or 2 billionths of a newton. “We don’t know of any [biological] bond that is stronger than this one without a covalent bond,” which is when two atoms share electrons, Bernardi says.”

Johnson gives ‘assurance’ to top Senate Dem he’ll move government funding bills. Politico.com article. Pull quote: ““I told her, it is my full intention that if we break this impasse and we put these bills together — we have three of them in conference committee right now — whatever the conference committee comes up with, I will put on the floor,” Johnson said during a Monday morning press conference of his recent conversation with Murray. “I’m ready to go.””

Speaker Johnson said he’d swear in new House Democrat ‘as soon as she wants.’ Now Republicans are backtracking. Yahoo.com article. Pull quote: “I told her, it is my full intention that if we break this impasse and we put these bills together — we have three of them in conference committee right now — whatever the conference committee comes up with, I will put on the floor,” Johnson said during a Monday morning press conference of his recent conversation with Murray. “I’m ready to go.”