In times like these, the news often reads like a catalogue of crises. Wars rage, economies wobble and political tempers flare. It is easy to conclude that the world is sliding steadily downhill.
Yet that impression is incomplete. Away from the headlines, a number of developments over the past years suggest that progress – often quiet and incremental – continues in fields ranging from medicine and energy to environmental protection. None of the breakthroughs solves humanity’s problems overnight. But taken together they tell a different story, one in which science, technology and patient international cooperation still move the world forward.
Here are eight recent examples that offer grounds for cautious optimism.
1 The rise of renewable energy
One of the most consequential shifts is happening in the global electricity system. In 2024 renewable energy accounted for more than 90 per cent of the net increase in global power generation capacity, according to data compiled by the International Renewable Energy Agency. The trend is driven largely by economics: in many regions new solar and wind projects are now cheaper to build than new coal or gas power plants.
Another milestone followed in 2025. Analysis by the energy think tank Ember found that, during the first half of the year, electricity generated by wind and solar combined slightly exceeded global coal generation for the first time. Coal remains a major source of electricity, particularly in parts of Asia, but the figures illustrate how rapidly the balance of the global power system is beginning to shift.
2 A promising step against malaria
Malaria remains one of the world’s deadliest infectious diseases. The World Health Organization estimates that hundreds of thousands of people die from it each year, the majority of them young children in sub-Saharan Africa.
Yet several developments in recent years suggest that the fight against the disease may be entering a new phase. Clinical trials of a new antimalarial combination therapy, ganaplacide–lumefantrine, have shown strong results in late-stage testing and may offer an additional tool against parasites that are becoming resistant to existing treatments.
At the same time the first malaria vaccines have begun to be introduced on a larger scale in several African countries. Although the vaccines do not provide complete protection, health experts believe they could significantly reduce severe illness and child mortality when combined with existing prevention measures.
3 Advances in cancer treatment
Cancer research has also accelerated in recent years. One particularly promising line of work involves personalised cancer vaccines designed to train the immune system to recognise the specific genetic mutations present in an individual patient’s tumour.
In clinical trials involving patients with high-risk melanoma, an experimental mRNA vaccine developed by Moderna together with Merck showed striking results. Used alongside the immunotherapy pembrolizumab, the vaccine reduced the risk of cancer recurrence or death by about 44 per cent compared with immunotherapy alone.
Large phase-III trials are now under way, and similar personalised vaccine strategies are being explored for several other types of cancer. Many researchers believe such approaches could eventually open a new chapter in cancer treatment by turning the immune system into a highly targeted weapon against each patient’s tumour.
4 Early detection of Alzheimer’s disease
Another important advance comes from neuroscience. For decades, diagnosing Alzheimer’s disease reliably often required expensive brain scans or invasive spinal fluid tests.
Recent research suggests that simple blood tests may soon make earlier diagnosis much easier. Tests that measure the protein p-tau217 in the bloodstream have demonstrated a high ability to identify the biological signs of Alzheimer’s disease.
Earlier detection could prove crucial. New drugs aimed at slowing the disease appear to be most effective when treatment begins in the earliest stages, before extensive brain damage has occurred.
5 Wildlife recoveries
Environmental news often focuses on species loss, yet some conservation programmes have produced measurable success.
The Iberian lynx, once considered the world’s most endangered wild cat, has recovered sufficiently to be reclassified from Endangered to Vulnerable after decades of habitat protection and breeding programmes in Spain and Portugal. The European bison has also returned to parts of its historic range following extensive reintroduction efforts.
Several marine species show similar trends. Long-term protection of nesting beaches and fishing restrictions have helped green sea turtle populations recover in a number of regions. Studies suggest that several other species – including loggerhead and hawksbill turtles – have also stabilised or begun to recover where long-term conservation measures have been implemented. These examples demonstrate that sustained conservation policies can reverse even severe declines in wildlife populations.
6 The promise of fusion energy
For decades nuclear fusion has often been described as the energy source that is always 30 years away. Yet recent experiments suggest steady scientific progress.
In 2025 researchers at the US National Ignition Facility achieved a record energy yield in a laboratory fusion experiment, producing roughly 8.6 megajoules of fusion energy from just over two megajoules of laser energy delivered to the fuel target. At the same time the WEST experimental reactor in France succeeded in maintaining a fusion plasma for more than 20 minutes, one of the longest sustained plasma operations yet achieved in a tokamak device.
The principle behind fusion is simple but powerful: instead of splitting heavy atoms as in today’s nuclear power plants, fusion combines light hydrogen nuclei to form helium, releasing enormous amounts of energy in the process – the very reaction that powers the sun.
If scientists eventually succeed in producing fusion energy at scale, it could provide a virtually inexhaustible source of low-carbon electricity with minimal long-lived radioactive waste. Commercial fusion power remains a distant prospect, but the scientific trajectory has become more credible than many sceptics once assumed.
7 A new generation of telescopes
Astronomy is entering an era of extraordinary observational power. One striking example is the Vera C. Rubin Observatory in Chile, which will host the LSST Camera, the largest digital camera ever built for astronomical research. With a resolution of 3.2 gigapixels, the instrument will survey the southern sky for a decade, capturing vast numbers of galaxies, stars and transient cosmic events.
The observatory is expected to generate unprecedented volumes of data on billions of galaxies. Scientists hope the project will provide new insights into dark matter, the expansion of the universe and potentially hazardous near-Earth asteroids.
8 Agricultural resilience
Climate change poses serious risks to global agriculture, but plant scientists are already searching for ways to adapt crops to hotter and more variable conditions.
Recent research has identified naturally occurring genetic variants in rice that help plants maintain grain quality and yield during extreme heat. Similar work is under way in wheat and maize, with researchers seeking traits that improve tolerance to heat, drought and pests.
Such advances will not eliminate the challenges facing global agriculture, but they could help stabilise food production in a warming climate and support harvests for a global population expected to approach ten billion people in the coming decades.
The quiet persistence of progress
Taken individually, none of these developments is a miracle solution. The world still faces formidable challenges in the form of geopolitical tensions and economic uncertainties.
Yet history rarely advances through dramatic turning points alone. More often it moves through thousands of incremental improvements: new medicines, smarter technologies, better environmental management and scientific discoveries that gradually reshape what is possible.
Seen from that perspective, recent developments offer a useful reminder. Even in turbulent times, progress has a habit of continuing quietly in the background.