Nandkumar M. Kamat
As the year is about to end, here is a short review of important breakthroughs in science that defined the year.
In 2025, science proved once again that discovery is not a matter of luck but rather persistence and imagination. From space laboratories to cell cultures, researchers have rewritten our understanding of life, matter, and the universe. Each finding, whether from a cosmic mission or a clinical trial, adds a new piece to the great puzzle of existence.
The creation of the first quantum computer in space marks a significant breakthrough in the year. Built by Austrian scientists, this small yet powerful processor was launched aboard a satellite and successfully operated in orbit, despite temperature fluctuations and radiation. For the first time, a quantum system has functioned beyond Earth, opening a future where space-based quantum networks might transmit unhackable information or sense faint gravitational changes in the environment. On the ground, the progress was equally impressive. Engineers unveiled the Helios processor, a 98-qubit quantum computer that has completed simulations of superconducting materials previously impossible to achieve using classical supercomputers. This achievement suggests that quantum computing has finally crossed the line from laboratory novelty to a practical scientific tool.
Space exploration has become deeply chemical and surprisingly biological this year. NASA’s analysis of samples from the asteroid Bennu revealed something extraordinary: sugars essential for life, including ribose—the molecular backbone of RNA—and glucose, a universal energy source, were discovered. This was the first confirmed detection of ribose in an extraterrestrial environment. Alongside these sugars, scientists have found oxygen- and nitrogen-rich organic polymers nicknamed “space gum,” as well as traces of ancient supernova dust. Together, these materials suggest that the ingredients of life may not be rare accidents on Earth but widespread products of cosmic chemistry.
Astronomy has produced another cascade of revelations. The European Space Agency’s Euclid space telescope, launched to map the dark universe, began sending an avalanche of data in 2025. Within months, astronomers have reported catalogues of billions of galaxies, detailed 3D maps of cosmic structures, and glimpses of the mysterious scaffolding formed by dark matter. Simultaneously, Japan’s XRISM mission observed the supernova remnant Cassiopeia A and detected unexpectedly high levels of chlorine and potassium. These are vital to biological chemistry on Earth, and their abundance shows that exploding stars may be even richer factories of life’s elements than previously believed.
On Earth, biology and medicine have entered new territories. In London, doctors at the Great Ormond Street Hospital reported the long-term success of BE-CAR7, a base-edited universal CAR T-cell therapy for aggressive blood cancers. Unlike older treatments that use a patient’s own immune cells, this technique employs modified donor cells engineered to attack malignant cells while surviving chemotherapy. Nearly two-thirds of the patients in the trials remained disease-free after several years. In the United States, Vertex Pharmaceuticals has extended the promise of CRISPR-based therapy to young children with sickle-cell disease and beta-thalassemia, who may have gone months or years without symptoms or blood transfusions. Together, these advances demonstrate that genetic medicine is maturing from experimental promise to a sustained reality.
Meanwhile, synthetic biology has reached a new frontier. Researchers have successfully inserted a laboratory-built chromosome into a living human cell, thereby creating a cell line that contains two synthetic chromosomes. This milestone from the Synthetic Human Genome Project demonstrated that scientists can now build and integrate artificial DNA on a scale far beyond that of individual genes. Such capabilities could eventually yield virus-resistant cells, improved tissue-engineering models, or safe donor organs; however, the ethical debates surrounding such power are just beginning.
If life were rewritten in laboratories, it would also be rediscovered in some of the planet’s harshest corners. A Stanford team has announced the discovery of thriving diatom communities living within Arctic ice under extreme cold and nutrient-scarce conditions. These microorganisms form micro-ecosystems that recycle energy and carbon even when sunlight is scarce, revealing strategies for survival that may inform astrobiology. If microbes can persist in such frozen darkness on Earth, similar adaptations may sustain life on icy worlds like Europa or Enceladus.
On the environmental front, 2025 held promise through advancements in materials and energy science. Researchers developed a strong, flexible biodegradable plastic made from cereal-grass waste—dubbed “Grasstic”. By using agricultural residue instead of fossil fuel feedstock, the new polymer promises to reduce dependence on petroleum and decrease plastic pollution. In another creative step toward sustainability, engineers have unveiled a paint that cools buildings by mimicking human sweat. The coating reflects sunlight and releases moisture that evaporates, lowering the surface temperature, even in humid climates. Field tests demonstrated temperature reductions of up to 10 °C without the need for electricity, suggesting a passive solution to the growing problem of heat stress.
Behind many of these achievements lies a quiet revolution in the way science is conducted. Artificial Intelligence and robotics are now part of the daily workflow in major laboratories worldwide. Researchers at MIT launched a project called FutureHouse, designed to allow AI systems to generate hypotheses, design experiments, and analyse results automatically. At Berkeley Lab, robotic platforms guided by algorithms synthesise and test new battery materials at speeds that no human team can match. These automated systems do not replace scientists; instead, they expand their reach, enabling more rapid iteration and discovery.
For many researchers, 2025 marked the first year in which they felt genuinely partnered with machines in the creative process. The combined picture is of an extraordinary range. In the same year, humanity placed a quantum computer in orbit, decoded the chemical story of an asteroid older than Earth, saw stars forge the salts of life, built pieces of the human genome from scratch, cured once-fatal blood diseases, created plastic from grass, cooled buildings without power, and redefined the way research is conducted. Each breakthrough stands alone, yet together they signal a broader transformation: science is moving from observation to active construction and from explaining the world to designing its next version. These discoveries raise difficult questions. As we edit genomes and manufacture life components, how do we strike a balance between innovation and ethics? As automation speeds up discovery, can society ensure transparency and access, rather than letting science concentrate in wealthy institutions? The pace of progress in 2025 suggests that such choices can no longer wait for future generations; they must accompany discovery itself.
Nevertheless, the overall tone of 2025 was hopeful. Each major finding carries a sense of connection: between atoms forged in supernovae and the sugars of life, between the icy micro-worlds of the Arctic and the imagined oceans of distant moons, and between quantum circuits and cosmic signals. For the first time in years, the headlines in science were not dominated by crises or catastrophes but by creation and comprehension. This serves as a reminder that curiosity, when combined with precision and patience, remains humanity’s most renewable resource.
If science in earlier decades asked what the universe is made of, science in 2025 wondered what we can make of the universe. The answers came from laboratories, telescopes, and even frozen seas—but they all pointed in one direction: forward. The year will be remembered not for a single discovery but for the collective message behind them all—that the boundary between what we can imagine and what we can do is becoming thinner with every experiment.
