16 October 2026
A study published in Nature on 15 October 2026 reassessed the International Union for Conservation of Nature Red List status of 892 reef-building coral species that were first assessed in 2008. Of these, 774 species had enough data to be assessed, and 340 of them, or 44 per cent, were classified as threatened. The breakdown is 33 Critically Endangered, 251 Endangered and 56 Vulnerable. Most listings follow from projected thermal stress: because species-level population trends are rarely available, the authors inferred population reductions from global coral cover trends and projected annual severe bleaching under the SSP2-4.5 scenario over three decades, then adjusted the estimates with trait-based vulnerability scores. The authors note that the assessment predates the fourth global coral bleaching event of 2023 to 2025 and the first annual mean exceedance of 1.5 degrees Celsius of warming. The paper cautions that the Red List measures relative extinction risk and does not predict whether or when a species may go extinct.
Species assessed:
774 of 892
Threatened species:
340 (44%)
Critically Endangered:
33
Climate scenario used:
SSP2-4.5
Why it matters for exams: The figures give a dated, citable measure of coral extinction risk and tie the Red List categories to a climate scenario.
Kerala PSCUPSC
In plain words
IUCN Red List International Union for Conservation of Nature Red List of Threatened Species — The global inventory that grades species by relative risk of extinction.
Coral bleaching Coral bleaching — Corals expel their symbiotic algae under heat stress and turn white.
16 October 2026
A paper published in Nature on 14 October 2026 reports that the surface of a microplastic particle in water is chemically active. Polystyrene microplastics degraded about 90 per cent of the dye methyl orange over ten days in water but not in other solvents, and electron spin resonance spectroscopy confirmed hydroxyl radical production at the particle-water interface. Six commodity plastics, namely polypropylene, polyethylene, polystyrene, polyvinyl chloride, polyethylene terephthalate and polymethyl methacrylate, all generated radicals, with more hydrophobic surfaces more active. Adding the surfactant Triton X-100 reduced radical generation, surface charge and the accumulation of a hydrophobic dye on the particle surface. Charged biomolecules such as proteins and DNA accumulated on the particle surfaces, the radicals promoted protein aggregation, and the particles damaged mouse red blood cells. The authors conclude that plastics in microplastic form are not chemically inert and that this reactivity may contribute to health and environmental harm.
Dye degraded by polystyrene in water over ten days:
about 90%
Plastics tested:
six commodity plastics
Radical identified at the interface:
hydroxyl radical
Why it matters for exams: The finding changes the standard claim that plastics are inert, which environment and health questions repeat.
Kerala PSCUPSC
In plain words
Hydroxyl radical Hydroxyl radical — A highly reactive oxygen species that can break down dyes and damage biomolecules.
Surfactant Surface active agent — A substance that lowers surface tension and coats interfaces, as detergents do.
16 October 2026
A paper published in Nature on 14 October 2026, with Sheng Ding of Tsinghua University as corresponding author, reports continuous development outside the womb of mouse embryo models grown only from chemically induced totipotent-like stem cells. The cells self-organised into blastocyst-like structures that resembled natural blastocysts in shape and in the separation of cell lineages. The resulting models then went through gastrulation, embryonic axis formation, blood formation and early organ formation, closely resembling natural embryos at embryonic day 8.5. With longer culture the models developed functional cardiac tissue that the authors describe as highly comparable to natural embryos at day 10.5. The authors conclude that a single induced cell type can recapitulate much of early mouse embryogenesis and offer the system as a model for studying mammalian development.
Stage reached:
embryonic day 8.5 equivalent
Cardiac tissue comparable to:
day 10.5 natural embryos
Corresponding author:
Sheng Ding, Tsinghua University
Why it matters for exams: Embryo models made without eggs or sperm raise both a science and an ethics question that papers now ask.
UPSC
In plain words
Totipotent Totipotent cell — A cell able to give rise to every cell type, including the placenta.
Gastrulation Gastrulation — The stage at which an embryo forms its three primary germ layers.
16 October 2026
The United Kingdom launched an update to its Arctic Policy Framework at the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office in London on 15 October 2026, with Uma Kumaran, Minister for the Polar Regions, speaking at the launch. The update follows the earlier policy paper Looking North and is built on five priorities: understanding and responding to a changing Arctic, enhancing security and stability, supporting effective governance, building responsible economic partnerships and strengthening resilience. A Written Ministerial Statement on the framework was laid before Parliament. The Natural Environment Research Council has invested more than 145 million pounds in Arctic science since 2014, an initial 13 million pounds goes to Arctic Ocean research alongside the Research Council of Norway, and more than 4 million pounds over three years supports research partnerships, including with the Arctic Council and early-career Arctic researchers. The speech noted that Arctic winter sea ice in March 2025 reached the lowest annual maximum in the 47-year record.
Number of priorities:
five
Arctic science investment since 2014:
more than £145 million
Initial funding for Arctic Ocean research:
£13 million
Why it matters for exams: Polar policy items test which body governs the Arctic and what a non-Arctic state's role in it is.
Kerala PSCUPSC
In plain words
Arctic Council Arctic Council — The intergovernmental forum of Arctic states that also admits observers.
NERC Natural Environment Research Council — The United Kingdom's public funder of environmental science.
16 October 2026
United Kingdom Defence Innovation has opened the Tactical Power Challenge for the British Army, supported by the Defence Science and Technology Laboratory and delivered in partnership with Australia's Advanced Strategic Capabilities Accelerator. The funded Innovative Tactical Power competition carries 2.45 million pounds excluding value added tax. Stage 1 opened at 12 noon Greenwich Mean Time on 15 October 2026 and submissions are due at 12 noon Greenwich Mean Time on 10 November 2026; Stage 2 is by invitation only and demonstration activities are to be completed by March 2028. The challenge seeks safer alternatives to lithium-ion with equal or greater energy density, high-speed charging, novel power generation, power storage, management and distribution, technologies supporting silent operation and a lower logistics burden, soldier-carried and localised power generation, and integrated tactical power systems or individual components.
Competition value:
£2.45 million (ex-VAT)
Stage 1 closing:
12 noon GMT, 10 November 2026
Demonstrations to be completed by:
March 2028
Why it matters for exams: The challenge shows how armies now treat electric power as a logistics problem, and names a bilateral innovation partner.
UPSC
In plain words
Dstl Defence Science and Technology Laboratory — The research arm of the United Kingdom's Ministry of Defence.
ASCA Advanced Strategic Capabilities Accelerator — Australia's defence innovation agency, a partner in this challenge.
16 October 2026
The Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency and West Midlands Police raided an industrial unit in Birmingham on 14 October 2026 and seized more than 12,000 fake retatrutide and tirzepatide pens, along with packaging for around 30,000 more products. The agency puts the value of the seizure at approximately 2 million pounds. Retatrutide and tirzepatide are weight-loss and diabetes medicines of the incretin class. Tim Duffield, Head of Intelligence at the agency's Criminal Enforcement Unit, said the products had not been assessed for safety, quality or effectiveness and that retatrutide has not been authorised for use in the United Kingdom.
Pens seized:
over 12,000
Packaging seized:
for around 30,000 products
Value:
approximately £2 million
Why it matters for exams: The case shows how a drug regulator enforces the law against counterfeit medicines, a live public health topic.
UPSCSSC
In plain words
MHRA Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency — The United Kingdom body that licenses medicines and polices medicine crime.
Tirzepatide Tirzepatide — An injectable medicine used for type 2 diabetes and weight management.
16 October 2026
NASA announced a media teleconference for 4 p.m. Eastern Daylight Time on Thursday, October 15, 2026 on its contributions to the Martian Moons eXploration mission, which is led by the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency. The spacecraft is to lift off from the Tanegashima Space Center in Japan on Monday, October 19 Eastern Daylight Time, arrive at Mars in August 2027, collect a sample from Phobos no earlier than December 2028 after a detailed survey, and return the sample to Earth in 2031. NASA is contributing MEGANE, a gamma-ray and neutron spectrometer built by the Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory, and a pneumatic surface sampler mechanism developed by Honeybee Robotics, a Blue Origin company, along with Deep Space Network communications and navigation support and funding for United States scientists on the science team. David Lawrence of the Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory is the principal investigator for MEGANE.
Launch site:
Tanegashima Space Center, Japan
Mars arrival:
August 2027
Sample return to Earth:
2031
NASA spectrometer:
MEGANE
Why it matters for exams: A sample-return mission to a Martian moon is the kind of named mission, with dates and instruments, that science questions use.
Kerala PSCUPSC
In plain words
MEGANE Mars-moon Exploration with Gamma-rays and Neutrons — A spectrometer that reads the elements on Phobos from orbit.
Deep Space Network Deep Space Network — NASA's worldwide set of antennas that talks to distant spacecraft.
Phobos Phobos — The larger and inner of the two moons of Mars.
16 October 2026
A paper published in Nature on 14 October 2026, with Richard A. Friesner of Columbia University as corresponding author, reports evidence for multi-lithium-ion clustering in lithium-ion battery electrolytes. The team combined machine-learning-enabled atomistic simulations, nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy, electrochemical data and quantum-chemical calculations. They identify complexes holding several lithium ions, with no bound anions, coordinated only by ethylene carbonate, and describe these complexes as uniquely facile for reduction. In the simulations the share of lithium ions sitting in such clusters rises from about 23 per cent at 0.5 molar concentration to over 68 per cent at 2 molar. The machine-learning force field was fitted only to gas-phase cluster calculations yet reproduced a range of condensed-phase measurements. The authors present the role of these clusters in solid electrolyte interphase formation as a hypothesis rather than a demonstrated result.
Lithium ions in clusters at 0.5 molar:
about 23%
Lithium ions in clusters at 2 molar:
over 68%
Solvent coordinating the clusters:
ethylene carbonate
Why it matters for exams: Battery chemistry questions increasingly ask what happens inside the electrolyte, not only at the electrodes.
UPSC
In plain words
SEI Solid electrolyte interphase — The thin layer that forms on a battery electrode and governs its life.
Molar Molar concentration — The number of moles of a solute in one litre of solution.
Background
Every sanctions renewal and every mandate extension the Security Council votes on is decided under Article 27 of the United Nations Charter.
The Council has fifteen members in all: five permanent members and ten non-permanent members elected for two-year terms by the General Assembly.
The permanent members are China, France, the Russian Federation (which succeeded the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics), the United Kingdom and the United States.
Each member of the Council has one vote.
Decisions on procedural matters are made by an affirmative vote of nine members.
Decisions on all other matters need an affirmative vote of nine members including the concurring votes of the permanent members — the basis of the right of veto.
If any one permanent member casts a negative vote, the resolution is not approved; a permanent member that does not wish to veto may abstain instead, letting the resolution pass if it still has nine favourable votes.
Under Chapter VI of the Charter, a party to a dispute must abstain from voting on it.
Total members:
15
Permanent members:
5
Non-permanent members:
10, two-year terms
Affirmative votes needed:
9
Why it matters for exams: The Council's composition and its nine-vote rule are among the most frequently asked facts on the United Nations system.
Kerala PSCUPSCSSC
In plain words
Veto Right of veto — The power of a permanent member of the Security Council to block a decision by voting against it.
Article 27 Article 27 of the UN Charter — The Charter provision that lays down how the Security Council votes.
Abstention — Choosing not to vote either way, which does not block a resolution.
Background
Disputes over offshore oil projects and seabed mining are argued today under the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea, the globally recognised regime for all matters relating to the law of the sea.
The Convention was opened for signature on 10 December 1982 at Montego Bay, Jamaica, after more than 14 years of work involving more than 150 countries.
It entered into force on 16 November 1994, twelve months after the sixtieth instrument of ratification or accession was deposited.
Coastal States exercise sovereignty over a territorial sea whose breadth may not exceed 12 nautical miles, and foreign vessels enjoy innocent passage through those waters.
Ships and aircraft of all countries are allowed transit passage through straits used for international navigation.
Coastal States have sovereign rights in a 200-nautical-mile exclusive economic zone over natural resources, while all other States keep freedom of navigation and overflight and the freedom to lay submarine cables and pipelines there.
The continental shelf may extend at least 200 nautical miles, and the Commission on the Limits of the Continental Shelf recommends outer boundaries beyond that.
Disputes may be taken to the International Tribunal for the Law of the Sea, to the International Court of Justice or to arbitration, and the Tribunal has exclusive jurisdiction over deep seabed mining disputes.
Territorial sea:
up to 12 nautical miles
Exclusive economic zone:
200 nautical miles
Opened for signature:
10 December 1982, Montego Bay
Entered into force:
16 November 1994
Why it matters for exams: The twelve-nautical-mile and two-hundred-nautical-mile limits and the Tribunal's role are standard questions whenever a maritime dispute is in the news.
Kerala PSCUPSC
In plain words
EEZ Exclusive Economic Zone — The 200-nautical-mile belt in which a coastal State has sovereign rights over natural resources.
Innocent passage — The right of a foreign ship to pass through another State's territorial sea without threatening it.
ITLOS International Tribunal for the Law of the Sea — The court created by the Convention, seated at Hamburg, for law of the sea disputes.
Background
The Ozone Secretariat of the UN Environment Programme describes the Montreal Protocol on Substances that Deplete the Ozone Layer as a global agreement to protect the Earth's ozone layer by phasing out the chemicals that deplete it.
The phase-out plan covers both the production and the consumption of ozone-depleting substances.
The agreement was signed in 1987 and entered into force in 1989.
The parties to the Protocol meet once a year to take decisions on its implementation, and the Protocol has been adjusted or amended six times since its creation.
The most recent amendment, the Kigali Amendment, called for the phase-down of hydrofluorocarbons, or HFCs.
HFCs were used as replacements for ozone-depleting substances that the original Protocol eliminated; they do not deplete the ozone layer but are powerful greenhouse gases and so contribute to climate change.
The Ozone Secretariat records that the Protocol has met its objectives so far and that the ozone layer is well on its way to recovery.
Signed:
1987
Entered into force:
1989
Times amended or adjusted:
six
Kigali Amendment covers:
phase-down of hydrofluorocarbons (HFCs)
Why it matters for exams: Examiners regularly pair the Montreal Protocol with the Kigali Amendment and ask what each one covers.
Kerala PSCUPSCSSC
In plain words
HFCs Hydrofluorocarbons — Refrigerant gases that spare the ozone layer but warm the planet strongly.
Phase-down — A planned reduction in use, as against a phase-out, which ends use altogether.
Background
The International Criminal Court investigates and, where warranted, tries individuals charged with the gravest crimes of concern to the international community.
Those crimes are four: genocide, war crimes, crimes against humanity and the crime of aggression.
The Court is governed by an international treaty called the Rome Statute and is the world's first permanent international criminal court.
It is a court of last resort: it seeks to complement, not to replace, national courts.
It tries individuals, which distinguishes it from a court that hears claims between States.
The Rome Statute grants victims rights to participate in the Court's proceedings, and the Court holds two-way dialogue with the communities affected by crimes under its jurisdiction.
Its headquarters are at The Hague in the Netherlands, and over 900 staff from approximately 100 States work there.
Governing treaty:
Rome Statute
Crimes in its jurisdiction:
genocide, war crimes, crimes against humanity, aggression
Headquarters:
The Hague, the Netherlands
Staff:
over 900, from approximately 100 States
Why it matters for exams: The four crimes, the Rome Statute and the difference from a court of States are asked in almost every international relations paper.
Kerala PSCUPSC
In plain words
Rome Statute — The treaty that created the International Criminal Court and defines the crimes it may try.
Court of last resort — A court that acts only where national courts do not.