From promising breakthroughs in medical science to new applications for AI, 2025 was a pivot year.

 

A star cluster is shown inside a large nebula of many-coloured gas and dust. The material forms dark ridges and peaks of gas and dust surrounding the cluster, lit on the inner side, while layers of diffuse, translucent clouds blanket over them. Around and within the gas, a huge number of distant galaxies can be seen, some quite large, as well as a few stars nearer to us which are very large and bright. (Image Credit: ESA/Webb, NASA & CSA, P. Zeidler, E. Sabbi, A. Nota, M. Zamani (ESA/Webb))

Believe it or not, 2025 is almost over.

With the holiday season behind us, we turn our attention to the closing of one year before the dawning of the next. 2025 was such a whirlwind, plenty of major news stories slipped under the radar. 

“The Ten Most Significant Science Stories of 2025, From Medical Breakthroughs to an Interstellar Visitor,” reported Carlyn Kranking, McKenzie Prillaman, and Marta Hill for Smithsonian Magazine this month.

From promising organ transplant news, to de-extinctions, to new discoveries, 2025 was an incredible year for science. There was even what experts called the “strongest evidence yet” of life elsewhere in the universe.

In 2025, researchers made significant strides against diseases long considered stubborn or incurable. 

New cancer therapies moved beyond “promising” and into real-world use, especially personalized treatments that target tumors based on a patient’s own genetic profile. Advances in Alzheimer’s research also stood out, with early intervention therapies showing measurable success in slowing cognitive decline. 

These weren’t miracle cures — but they were real, incremental victories, the kind that quietly extend lives and improve their quality.

Artificial intelligence also delivered tangible benefits this year. 

AI-powered diagnostics helped doctors detect cancers earlier and more accurately, particularly in underserved areas with limited access to specialists. In hospitals, predictive systems reduced medical errors and improved patient outcomes. Outside healthcare, AI tools boosted productivity for small businesses, researchers, and creatives — less as a replacement for human judgment and more as an amplifier of it. 

Maybe the story with AI won’t “machines take over,” but rather “people work better.”

Environmental news offered a rare glimpse of optimism. Renewable energy capacity expanded at record rates in several countries, driving down costs and increasing grid reliability. Coral reef restoration projects showed unexpected success, with damaged ecosystems rebounding faster than scientists feared. Meanwhile, new battery technologies improved energy storage, addressing one of the most stubborn obstacles to clean power.

But the news wasn’t all good: 2025 was the year of the chatbot-induced mental breakdown and devastating wildfires in California.

Still, it’s also worth correcting the record on geopolitics in 2025. 

Geopolitics in 2025 didn’t just inch forward; in several cases, it moved decisively. And yes, some of that movement came through sweeping agreements negotiated under Donald Trump.

Most notably, the administration expanded and formalized normalization frameworks that had stalled after 2021. 

The Abraham Accords — often treated by critics as a one-off Trump-era anomaly — proved durable and expandable. In 2025, additional regional actors entered into normalization or quasi-normalization arrangements with Israel, including formal diplomatic recognition, security coordination, and trade agreements. These were not symbolic gestures; they involved embassies, airspace access, joint economic projects, and intelligence-sharing aimed at countering regional threats.

Beyond the Middle East, Trump’s team also pushed through negotiated de-escalations that previous administrations had written off as impossible. In at least two long-running regional conflicts, U.S.-brokered agreements produced ceasefires that held not for days or weeks, but for months — long enough to allow humanitarian corridors, border stabilization, and the reopening of commercial routes.

There were also renewed security and trade compacts that functioned as peace deals in all but name. Several U.S.-backed agreements tied economic incentives — investment, sanctions relief, infrastructure cooperation — to concrete security commitments. The message was blunt: stability pays; continued conflict doesn’t.

This doesn’t mean global conflict disappeared. Far from it. But it does mean the lazy narrative — that diplomacy under Trump is inherently chaotic or unserious — collapsed under the weight of outcomes. Some of 2025’s progress came through quiet, incremental steps. But some of it came through hard, unmistakable agreements that changed facts on the ground.

All and all, 2025 was a good year. 2026 is shaping up to be even better.

(Contributing writer, Brooke Bell)