this year's biggest science story There was a political revolution in the United States. Funding cuts, academic layoffs And vaccine skepticism Critics of President Donald Trump's administration say many see it as an attack on science. The resulting damage to science may last a long time. way to the future.
But in 2025 there were also many positive events that give hope for the coming years. “From a non-American scientist's perspective, it's business as usual. You just get on with your job,” says Glen Peters, a climate policy researcher at the Cicero Center for International Climate Research in Oslo.
Our recent Naturepack of 10 includes a lot of good news – and there was a lot more. From gene editing innovations to rapid disease containment and political victories, Nature looks at some positive science stories for 2025.
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Species recovery
Populations of some endangered and near-extinct species have rebounded this year, thanks to intensive conservation efforts.
Green sea turtle (Chelonia Midas), which has been critically endangered since the 1980s, has now moved to the “least concern” category on the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) red list. Efforts to protect turtle eggs and prevent them from being accidentally caught in fishing nets have allowed the population to recover.
Ampurtha (Dasitsercus hilly), a rat-sized Australian marsupial that went from near extinction to “least concern” this year. Ampurta expanded by more than 48,000 square kilometers between 2015 and 2021, despite drought conditions and food shortages.
Finally, the countries reached Historical milestone in marine conservation in September, the United Nations Treaty on the High Seas received approval from more than 60 countries. The treaty, which will come into force in January, aims to legally protect biodiversity in international waters and conserve at least 30% of land and marine areas.
The ozone hole is shrinking
The hole in Antarctica's ozone layer has shrunk to its smallest size since 2019, indicating the continued restoration of Earth's protective upper atmosphere.
The ozone hole was first discovered in 1985 and is the result of human emissions of ozone-depleting chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs), such as refrigerator coolants and aerosol cans. The 1987 Montreal Protocol ended the production and use of CFCs, successfully limiting emissions. Since 1987, the average size of the ozone hole has gradually decreased throughout the year, with the smallest size occurring in 2019.
The ozone hole could fully recover in the late 2060s if efforts to find environmentally friendly alternatives to CFCs continue.
Advances in gene editing
This year “has been a breakthrough year for gene editing,” says David Liu, a biological chemist at the Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard in Cambridge, Massachusetts. “In 2025, these technologies will achieve a number of medical milestones.”
“I consider this a remarkable year, marked by the start of many clinical trials,” adds Annarita Miccio, who studies gene therapy at the Imagine Institute at the Necker Children's Hospital in Paris.
The first gene therapy for Huntington's disease was astonishing, slowing down the speed of cognitive function. decrease in participants by 75%. Another gene therapy trial, T-cell acute lymphoblastic leukemia, showed promising results, with most of the 11 children and adults participating going into remission. A new type of CAR-T cell therapy uses base editing technology to modify multiple genes in T cells, helping them target cancer cells.
The researchers also tested the first use of CRISPR technology. individual approach this year. Other successes include the first gene therapy clinical trial to treat a rare immune disease called chronic granulomatous disease, and another that corrected a pathogenic mutation that can cause lung damage and liver disease.
“These clinical trials paved the way for the development of mutation-specific strategies to combat rare diseases and demonstrated that collaboration between academia and industry can lead to cures for people with these diseases,” says Miccio.
Increased use of renewable energy sources
This year, renewable energy overtook coal as the world's largest energy source for the first time. This achievement was helped by China becoming the first country in the world to install a 1 terawatt solar power plant in May. In the first six months of 2025 alone, China installed 256 gigawatts of new solar systems—double the rest of the world combined. The country plans to add another 200–300 gigawatts of solar and wind power capacity. five-year plan starting in 2026.
“China and many developing countries are adopting solar and wind energy. [and] electric vehicles at breakneck speed,” says Peters.
In the second and third quarters of this year, about half of the European Union's electricity demand came from renewables. Renewable energy capacity is projected to increase by nearly 4,600 gigawatts between 2025 and 2030, double the capacity deployed between 2019 and 2024.
However, greenhouse gas emissions from fossil fuels reached new high this year. It remains to be seen whether renewable energy can replace fossil fuels as the dominant global energy source.
Ebola contained
In September, heroic efforts by African health workers and governments contained an Ebola outbreak in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) in just 42 days. On September 4, the Ministry of Health confirmed that the outbreak in Kasai province was caused by the Zairean ebolavirus. A total of 64 cases have been reported, with the last case reported on September 25.
While the remoteness of these areas made it difficult for rescuers to access, it also helped prevent the spread of the virus, says Henry Kyobe Bosa, head of the Ebola and COVID-19 response at Uganda's Ministry of Health.
Vaccine introduction and monoclonal antibody treatment began soon after the outbreak was declared, helping to prevent severe disease. “We are getting better at management, response, community engagement and contact tracing,” Bosa says.
New drugs for malaria
In November, the World Health Organization (WHO) approved the first malaria treatment for babies. Given that children under five currently account for about 75% of malaria deaths worldwide, this drug could bring the world one step closer to eliminating the disease.
A pediatric version of the treatment, called Coartem (artemether-lumefantrine), “offers a drug form that can now be safely used to treat malaria among relatively neglected groups of infants and young children,” says Jane Achan, a pediatrician specializing in infectious diseases and chief consultant at the Malaria Consortium in London. “This will definitely have broad implications, particularly in terms of improving treatment of malaria in at-risk groups, as well as improving treatment outcomes among infants and young children, and in settings where malaria parasites are drug-resistant,” she adds.
IN Phase III clinical trial this year, a second malaria drug called ganaplacid-lumefantrine (GanLum) successfully cured malaria in 97.4% of participants. GanLum also cleared parasites that had developed resistance to the antimalarial drug artemisinin.
If GanLum receives regulatory approval, it will be the first new class of malaria drugs in more than 25 years.
Peanut allergies are on the decline
The study found that the incidence of peanut allergies in children has declined in the United States over the past decade, marking a major victory for evidence-based policy and decision-making. For years, parents have been advised not to give their children peanuts to prevent dangerous allergic reactions. But a landmark 2015 study found the opposite: When babies are introduced to peanut products as early as four months of age, they are much less likely to develop an allergy to them. The study led to changes in medical recommendations between 2015 and 2017.
There is now a 43% decline in the prevalence of peanut allergies in children under three years of age in the United States compared to 2012. The same method of exposing infants to various allergens also resulted in a 36% reduction in the incidence of other food allergies. “This is a good year to spend peanut allergy or food allergy,” says Michael Pistiner, a pediatric allergist at the Mass General Brigham for Children in Boston, Massachusetts. “Many in our field have seen changes for the better, and this particular year has been exciting.”
“This is a great example of translating the results of controlled studies into broader community-level results,” says Pistiner.
This article is reproduced with permission and has been first published December 17, 2025.
