16 October 2026
Member states of the General Conference on Weights and Measures voted to abolish the leap second immediately and to replace it with a leap hour.
The vote was taken at the twenty-eighth meeting of the Conference, held outside Paris on 15 October.
Leap seconds keep Universal Coordinated Time, which is based on atomic clocks, aligned with solar time, which follows the Earth's irregular rotation, and they have been added roughly once every one and a half years.
They have disrupted computing systems and caused clocks to fall out of alignment on the days they were applied.
The leap hour will be triggered only when Earth time and atomic time drift apart by 3,600 seconds, which the report says is likely not to be needed for thousands of years.
The resolution was formally introduced by Noel Dimarcq, a metrologist at the Cote d'Azur Observatory in Nice, and passed by majority rather than unanimously.
Meeting:
28th meeting of the General Conference on Weights and Measures
Date of vote:
15 October
Leap hour trigger:
a drift of 3,600 seconds
Earlier frequency of leap seconds:
roughly once every 1.5 years
Why it matters for exams: Universal Coordinated Time, atomic clocks and the leap second are standard science questions, and the body that decides them is the General Conference on Weights and Measures.
Kerala PSCUPSCSSC
In plain words
UTC Universal Coordinated Time — The world's civil time standard, generated by atomic clocks and until now kept near solar time by leap seconds.
CGPM General Conference on Weights and Measures — The treaty body of member states that takes the final decisions on the International System of Units and on world time standards.
16 October 2026
Researchers have mapped the proteins that make up mitochondria in six organisms, five single-celled parasites and one plant.
The findings appear in nine papers across the journals Cell, Molecular Cell and Current Biology, and the work was led by Vamsi Mootha of the Howard Hughes Medical Institute in Boston.
In Giardia lamblia, which infects about 280 million people worldwide each year and causes diarrhoea, the team identified 59 mitochondrial proteins, of which 32 were previously known and 27 are new.
The function of 34 of these Giardia proteins is unknown.
Combining the six organisms with human and yeast data, the researchers compiled 8,619 mitochondrial proteins grouped into 3,199 families, and about 43 per cent of these families are not recorded in the Pfam protein database.
Thirty-three protein families are conserved in eukaryotic pathogens but absent in humans, which Mootha describes as potential ideal drug targets.
Mitochondrial proteins compiled:
8,619
Protein families:
3,199
Families absent from Pfam:
about 43 per cent
Giardia lamblia infections a year:
about 280 million people
Why it matters for exams: Mitochondria, endosymbiosis and drug-target discovery are syllabus topics, and the atlas gives a concrete figure for how many mitochondrial proteins are now known.
Kerala PSCUPSC
In plain words
Mitochondria Mitochondria — The organelles that produce most of a cell's chemical energy, thought to have arisen through endosymbiosis about two billion years ago.
Eukaryote Eukaryote — An organism whose cells have a nucleus and membrane-bound organelles, including all plants, animals, fungi and protists.
16 October 2026
A working paper of the National Bureau of Economic Research finds that 29.4 per cent of abstracts of United States science, technology, engineering and mathematics doctoral dissertations filed from January to May 2026 contained artificial-intelligence-generated text.
Such text first appeared in 2023 at 1.7 per cent of abstracts and rose to 18.8 per cent in 2025.
Mathematical and computer sciences had the highest share at 36 per cent.
About 41 per cent of dissertations by graduates educated in non-English-speaking countries had AI-generated abstracts, against 23 per cent from English-speaking countries.
Among graduates who did their undergraduate studies in the United States, those with AI-generated abstracts were 17 per cent less likely to be employed in academia and 16 per cent more likely to be employed in industry.
The team analysed abstracts from more than 226,000 doctoral graduates between January 2019 and May 2026 using the detection service Pangram, and the paper has not been peer reviewed.
Share with AI-generated text, Jan to May 2026:
29.4 per cent
Share in 2023:
1.7 per cent
Highest field:
mathematical and computer sciences, 36 per cent
Dissertations analysed:
more than 226,000
Why it matters for exams: Academic integrity and the spread of generative artificial intelligence are live education-policy themes, and the figures here are the kind an examiner quotes.
Kerala PSCUPSC
In plain words
NBER National Bureau of Economic Research — A United States research organisation whose working papers circulate findings before peer review.
STEM Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics — The group of academic disciplines often treated together in education and workforce policy.
16 October 2026
A study of more than 100,000 people, described as the largest of its kind, has linked active brown fat to a range of health benefits.
People with active brown fat were less affected by type 2 diabetes, depression and anxiety than people without it.
The researchers used an artificial-intelligence model to measure active brown fat from medical scans, which use positron emission tomography and computed tomography with a radioactive glucose tracer that highlights tissue actively taking up glucose.
Brown fat burns calories to produce heat and is typically found around the neck, armpits and chest; it was first reported in human adults in 2009.
The team was led by Paul Cohen of The Rockefeller University, working with Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center, and the paper appeared in Nature.
The study is retrospective, so it cannot by itself prove that brown fat causes the benefits.
Study size:
more than 100,000 people
Conditions linked:
type 2 diabetes, depression and anxiety
First reported in human adults:
2009
Why it matters for exams: Brown adipose tissue, thermogenesis and the difference between correlation and causation in a retrospective study are all examinable points.
Kerala PSCUPSC
In plain words
Brown fat Brown adipose tissue — A type of fat that burns calories to generate heat instead of storing energy.
Retrospective study Retrospective study — A study that looks back at records already collected, which can show association but not establish cause.
16 October 2026
Margaret Hamilton, the computer scientist who pioneered software engineering and helped put humans on the Moon, has died aged 90.
She was born in 1936 in Paoli, Indiana, and earned a bachelor's degree in mathematics with a minor in philosophy from Earlham College in 1958.
She helped develop weather-prediction software in the meteorology department of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology with Edward Lorenz, despite having no prior programming experience.
In 1961 she moved to the Lincoln Laboratory of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology to code the Semi-Automatic Ground Environment air-defence system.
She became the first programmer hired for the Apollo project at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and later led the team that wrote and tested the software for the Apollo Guidance Computer.
She is often credited with coining the term software engineering, and later founded software companies serving the space, defence, energy and communications sectors.
Age at death:
90
Year of birth:
1936
Term she is credited with coining:
software engineering
Why it matters for exams: Obituaries of figures who coined a discipline's name are asked directly, and the Apollo Guidance Computer links space history with computer science.
Kerala PSCUPSCSSC
In plain words
Apollo Guidance Computer Apollo Guidance Computer — The onboard computer that navigated and controlled the Apollo spacecraft during the Moon missions.
16 October 2026
The World Health Organization has published the second edition of its investment case, Funding a tuberculosis-free future, on screening and preventive treatment.
The document is a modelling study of the costs and benefits of tuberculosis screening together with tuberculosis preventive treatment.
It covers four countries: Brazil, Georgia, Kenya and South Africa.
It finds that relatively modest investments can achieve significant health and economic benefits in all four countries.
The return is up to 54 United States dollars for each dollar invested.
The investment case is meant to help countries seek more resources to scale up screening and preventive treatment towards the targets set by Heads of State at the 2023 United Nations High-Level Meeting on tuberculosis.
Return on investment:
up to US$ 54 for each dollar invested
Countries modelled:
Brazil, Georgia, Kenya and South Africa
Edition:
second edition
Why it matters for exams: Tuberculosis targets, preventive treatment and the 2023 United Nations High-Level Meeting are standard health-policy questions, and the return-on-investment figure is quotable.
Kerala PSCUPSC
In plain words
TPT Tuberculosis preventive treatment — Medicine given to a person infected with tuberculosis bacteria but not yet ill, to stop the disease developing.
Investment case Investment case — A costed argument showing what a health intervention would cost and what it would return, used to seek funding.
16 October 2026
The World Health Organization has published the Philippines country cooperation strategy for 2025 to 2028.
The strategy sets out the priorities on which the Organization and the Government of the Philippines will work to improve population health and build equitable, resilient health systems.
It responds to persistent inequalities in access to health services, the rising burden of noncommunicable diseases, tuberculosis and HIV, and the country's exposure to disasters and climate change.
It has four priorities: advancing universal health coverage through stronger primary health care and essential public health functions; improving preparedness, response and resilience to health emergencies and environmental threats; addressing social, economic and environmental determinants of health; and expanding regional and international health cooperation.
Its strategic deliverables are health system capacity, equitable access to quality services, health security, health promotion and digital transformation.
The document was issued by the Organization's Regional Office for the Western Pacific.
Period:
2025 to 2028
Number of priorities:
4
Issuing office:
WHO Regional Office for the Western Pacific
Why it matters for exams: Country cooperation strategies show how the World Health Organization works through six regional offices, and the Western Pacific region is one an examiner can place.
Kerala PSCUPSC
In plain words
UHC Universal Health Coverage — The goal that everyone can use the health services they need without suffering financial hardship.
Noncommunicable diseases Noncommunicable diseases — Long-term conditions such as diabetes, heart disease and cancer, which are not passed from person to person.
Background
This is in the news this week because the General Conference on Weights and Measures has just voted to abolish the leap second.
The world runs on two different ideas of time.
Universal Coordinated Time is generated by atomic clocks, which keep an extremely steady beat.
Solar time follows the rotation of the Earth, which is irregular and does not keep a steady beat.
Because the two drift apart, a correction was needed, and until now that correction was the leap second, inserted roughly once every one and a half years.
The replacement correction is the leap hour, to be inserted only when the two measures of time are 3,600 seconds apart.
Basis of Universal Coordinated Time:
atomic clocks
Basis of solar time:
the Earth's rotation
Size of a leap hour:
3,600 seconds
Why it matters for exams: Questions ask what makes atomic time differ from solar time, and this is the concept behind every leap second and leap hour question.
Kerala PSCUPSC
In plain words
Metrology Metrology — The science of measurement, including the definition and realisation of units such as the second.