The news can sometimes make it feel like the world is about to end tomorrow. Fortunately, science has been on hand to deliver some much-needed good news.
Throughout 2025, researchers have been hard at work protecting us from existential threats, researching ways to improve the health of both us and our planet, and revealing the beauty of the cosmos around us.
Here is our pick of this year’s best feel-good science stories from 2025.
1. ‘City killer’ asteroid probably won’t hit Earth
Alarm bells started ringing in February when the chances of asteroid 2024 YR4 hitting Earth in the year 2032 rapidly rose from 1.2 per cent to 2.3 per cent, and then up again to 3.1 per cent, making it the riskiest asteroid ever observed.
With an estimated diameter of around 60m (197ft), it threatened to wipe out an unspecified major city – releasing over 500 times more energy than the atomic bomb that landed on Hiroshima in 1945.
Fortunately, the risk was quickly downgraded and now NASA says they are no longer worried about the asteroid hitting Earth. (They now think it has a 3.8 per cent chance of slamming into the Moon, though).
2. Common vitamin supplements could slow ageing
A major clinical trial led by Mass General Brigham, in the US, revealed that vitamin D supplements can protect the length of our telomeres (the caps on our chromosomes that degrade and shorten as we age).
In the double-blind, long-term study of over 1,000 participants, vitamin D was found to prevent almost three years of ageing compared with a placebo.
3. The world’s biggest camera took its first pictures
The newly opened Vera C Rubin Observatory released its first images of the Universe – images so large that you’d need 400 ultra-high-definition TVs just to display one at full size.
The wealth of data it collects (every night, for the next decade) could help scientists unravel some of the Universe’s remaining mysteries, including cosmic expansion and dark matter.
4. ‘Forever chemicals’ may not be for forever
Scientists found a way to finally destroy the dangerous chemicals, linked to several types of cancer, that enter our homes via packaging, fabrics and non-stick cookware.
Polyperfluoroalkylated substances (PFAS) are a huge problem for both the environment and our health – but the new method, using phosphate salts, breaks the strong carbon-fluorine bonds that make them so pervasive.
5. Renewables surpassed coal for the first time
In the first half of 2025, wind and solar projects generated more electricity around the world than coal. Thanks to a surge in renewables in China and India (plus a dip – albeit temporarily – in coal in the latter), the milestone marks a major shift towards a clean energy.
Additional reporting by Ezzy Pearson
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