Recent 6 months news in Science

The Zoological Survey of India (ZSI) under the Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change (MoEFCC) has completed the first detailed Catalogue of Lepidoptera in India.

As per the catalogue, India hosts 13,703 species of Lepidoptera across 3,705 genera, which includes 1,417 species of butterflies and 12,286 species of moths. The project also includes a dedicated catalogue for the moth superfamily Geometroidea, identifying 2,205 species within the country.

This catalogue comprises 22 volumes and provides an updated taxonomic inventory of butterflies and moths. The final volume was authored by ZSI taxonomists Rahul Joshi and Navneet Singh and published in the international journal Zootaxa.

Alibaba has unveiled its largest and most capable AI model named "Qwen3.8-Max". The model features 2.4 trillion parameters. It is positioned behind Moonshot AI's Kimi K3, which comprises 2.8 trillion parameters.

DeepSeek has launched its 'V4-Flash model', claimed to be the most cost-effective AI model globally.

The Application Programming Interface (API) of the model is priced at $0.14 per million input tokens and $0.28 per million output tokens.

SpaceX has successfully completed the 13th integrated test flight of its Starship launch system from Starbase, Texas, USA. The mission, marking the second test flight of Starship Version 3 (V3), involved the first-ever deployment of 20 next-generation Starlink V3 satellites.

The launch system concluded the flight with a controlled splashdown in the Indian Ocean. It is to be noted that the NASA monitored the mission to evaluate its suitability for future 'Artemis' lunar missions.

Researchers from the NASA have proposed an AI mission concept named "Planetary Rings Autonomous EXploration with In-situ Sampling (PRAXIS)". It has been proposed under Phase I of the NASA Innovative Advanced Concepts (NIAC) 2026 program.

The mission aims to enable the first-ever direct collection and analysis of particles from Saturn's rings. It is designed to deliver direct observations of millimetre- to centimetre-sized ring particles, addressing a key priority identified in planetary science decadal surveys. The project is led by Dr. B Marco Quadrelli.

The Indian Council of Agricultural Research – Central Marine Fisheries Research Institute (ICAR-CMFRI) has launched a mobile application titled “DeepDATA” in Kochi, Kerala.

Developed under the “Deep Ocean Mission” of the Ministry of Earth Sciences (MoES), the application provides scientifically verified information regarding deep-sea fish species.

Indian Analog Astronaut Captain Aman Johri has successfully completed a microgravity research flight under 'Project Astra Farm'.

The mission focused on studying the behavior of onions and potatoes grown in Maharashtra under microgravity conditions. The research was conducted using a passive microgravity payload in collaboration with the National Research Council Canada (NRC-CNRC).

The Council of Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR) organized a Technology Transfer Event at its headquarters in New Delhi. The programme was coordinated by the CSIR-Central Scientific Instruments Organisation (CSIR-CSIO), Chandigarh.

During the event, 4 indigenous technologies were transferred to the industry, and an Internet of Things (IoT)-enabled rural water service delivery, measurement, and monitoring system was commercially launched. The event also recognized the royalty received from Bharat Electronics Ltd (BEL) for the licensed production of indigenous defence technologies.

HEX20, a Kerala-based space startup, has successfully launched its second satellite named KOYO (Kinetic Optical Yaw Observer) onboard the SpaceX Transporter-17 mission from Vandenberg Space Force Base, California.

The satellite acts as a multi-payload test platform carrying 81 payloads to facilitate in-orbit technology validation and the commissioning of international payloads.

VK Saxena, the Lieutenant Governor of Ladakh, has commissioned India's first and deepest two 1,000-metre geothermal wells at Puga Valley, Ladakh. These wells, executed by the Oil and Natural Gas Corporation Ltd (ONGC) Energy Centre, are critical for the 1 Megawatt (MW) Pilot Geothermal Power Plant.

This project is India's first demonstration-scale geothermal power project situated at an altitude of over 14,000 feet. It is to be noted that the wells reached a maximum temperature of 135°C at a depth of 400m.

Astronomers using the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) of NASA have discovered a new giant exoplanet named 'Beta Pictoris d'. Located 63 light-years from the Earth, the planet is estimated to be 23 million years old.

With a mass of at least 2 times that of Jupiter, it is the smallest among the 3 known giant planets in the Beta Pictoris system. It is to be noted that this makes the Beta Pictoris system the second known planetary system to feature at least 3 directly imaged planets.

The Central Drugs Standard Control Organisation (CDSCO) under the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare has granted marketing authorisation for the Dengue Tetravalent Vaccine (Live, Attenuated), known as "Qdenga". This is the first dengue vaccine to be approved in India for the prevention of the disease.

Manufactured by Takeda GmbH, Germany, and imported by Takeda Biopharmaceuticals India Pvt Ltd, the vaccine is indicated for individuals aged between 4 and 60 years. It is produced in Vero cells. It is to be noted that the vaccine has already received regulatory approval in 42 countries.

The Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) has successfully conducted the inaugural lift-off and landing test of its reusable rocket prototype, 'RV-X', at the Noshiro Testing Center in Japan.

The prototype is developed in partnership with Mitsubishi Heavy Industries (MHI). It measures 7.3 m in length and 1.8 m in diameter, featuring an enhanced-durability engine and 4 shock-absorbing landing legs.

Russia has successfully launched the 'Soyuz MS-29' crewed mission to the International Space Station (ISS) from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan. The mission was executed using the Soyuz-2.1a launch vehicle.

The crew includes the NASA astronaut Anil Menon and the Roscosmos cosmonauts Pyotr Dubrov and Anna Kikina.

Skyroot Aerospace has successfully launched 'Vikram-1', India's first privately developed orbital-class rocket, into a 450 km Low-Earth Orbit (LEO). The mission, titled 'Mission Aagaman' (meaning arrival), marks India as the third nation with private orbital launch capabilities, following the US and China.

The 4-stage, 7-storey-tall rocket, named after Vikram Sarabhai, the father of India's space programme, has a payload capacity of up to 350 kg. It was launched from the Satish Dhawan Space Centre (SDSC) in Sriharikota, Andhra Pradesh.

The mission successfully deployed technology demonstrators from Grahaa Space, Cosmoserve, DCubed, and the SCOPE satellite. It also carried symbolic payloads, including an 18-karat gold rocket, an artistic lab-grown diamond, and a handwritten postcard from PM Narendra Modi bearing the message 'Vande Mataram'.

Union Minister Pralhad Joshi has launched a White Rabbit technology-based demonstration network at the Regional Reference Standard Laboratory (RRSL) in Bengaluru to securely distribute Indian Standard Time (IST) across the country.

The project is a collaborative effort between the Department of Consumer Affairs, the Council of Scientific and Industrial Research-National Physical Laboratory (CSIR-NPL), and the ISRO.

The network uses an advanced Precision Time Protocol (PTP)-based Ethernet network extension to deliver sub-nanosecond accuracy and microsecond-level synchronization over long distances. It is to be noted that the time signal is traceable to the Coordinated Universal Time (NPLI) (UTC (NPLI)).

China has successfully executed the first controlled recovery of an orbital-class reusable rocket booster following the maiden launch of the Long March-10B carrier rocket from Hainan Province.

It is to be noted that this comes over a decade after SpaceX became the first entity to recover an orbital-class rocket booster in 2015.

ISRO has successfully conducted 3 critical tests of the Gaganyaan Crew Module (CM) systems as part of the human spaceflight programme of India.

These tests included the float inflation test for the Crew Module Up-Righting system (CMUS), the Umbilical Separation Testing of the Connect-Disconnect System (CS-CDS), and the crew module structure qualification test for Apex Cover separation loads.

The Council of Scientific and Industrial Research-Indian Institute of Chemical Technology (CSIR-IICT) in Hyderabad has developed India's first indigenous process technology for Hydrofluoroolefin-1234yf (HFO-1234yf).

This technology, now ready for industry transfer, is designed to replace Hydrofluorocarbons (HFCs) in refrigeration and air-conditioning (AC) systems.

The Council of Scientific and Industrial Research-Central Institute of Mining and Fuel Research (CSIR-CIMFR) has developed the Smart Algal Liquid Tree (SALT), a mobile liquid tree designed to purify air in crowded urban areas.

The patented technology functions as a photobioreactor that uses microalgae to absorb carbon dioxide, release oxygen, and reduce dust concentrations. It is currently deployed at the CSIR-CIMFR facility in Dhanbad, Jharkhand, and at Northern Coalfields Ltd (NCL) in Singrauli, Madhya Pradesh.