Chinese company gets airworthiness certificate for groundbreaking bio jet fuel made of cooking oil
Compared to traditional petroleum-based aviation kerosene, bio jet fuel can reduce carbon emissions by up to 50% throughout the entire lifecycle.
Today (2017 C.E. - 2025 C.E.)
This archive spans one of the most eventful periods in recent history, from 2017 through 2025. Browse more than 4,100 articles documenting scientific breakthroughs, policy wins, social progress, and human ingenuity from the present era. Each story highlights what people and communities around the world are building, solving, and achieving right now.
Wild mammals are making a comeback in Europe thanks to conservation efforts
By the first half of the 20th century, many of Europe’s mammals had been reduced to just a fraction of historical levels. But many mammal populations have seen a dramatic increase over the last 50 years.
Indian company develops country’s first HPV vaccine
CERVAVAC, India’s first homegrown cervical cancer vaccine, is priced at just $2.50 to $5.00 per dose — a fraction of what HPV vaccines have cost in wealthy countries for nearly two decades. Developed by the Serum Institute of India, it protects against the HPV strains responsible for the majority of cervical cancers worldwide, and the company aims to produce around 200 million doses in its first two years. Cervical cancer is almost entirely preventable, yet it still kills hundreds of thousands of women each year, mostly in lower-income countries where vaccines have been priced out of reach. An affordable, locally made option doesn’t just change the math for India — it points toward a future where health tools belong to the people who need them most.
U.S. Senate ratifies Kigali Amendment, joining more than 130 countries in treaty to eliminate HFCs
HFCs were widely adopted in the 1980s and 1990s to replace CFCs, which damage the Earth’s ozone layer. But then HFCs emerged as some of the most potent greenhouse gases, far more potent than carbon dioxide.
Cuba approves same-sex marriage in historic turnabout
Cubans approved a measure to legalize same-sex marriage, part of a new family code that’s among the most progressive in Latin America, defying a long tradition of machismo on the island.
Connecticut becomes one of the first U.S. states to require schools to teach climate change
A recent national survey of science teachers found that most middle school and high school teachers devote just one to two hours of instruction on climate change during the entire academic year.
Local officials remove permit for controversial Philippine gold mine
Local activists have hailed the revocation of the permit as a victory in a decades-long campaign against the mine.
Chinese company Longi launching groundbreaking space-based solar panels
Longi Green Energy Technology Co., the world’s biggest solar technology manufacturer, will send panels into space as the first step in plans to test the feasibility of harnessing the sun’s power in orbit and transmitting it back to Earth.
Ozone layer hits a “significant milestone” as concentrations of harmful chemicals drop 50%
In 1987, just seven years after ozone depletion from chemicals was made most obvious, every country on Earth ratified a treaty, known as the Montreal Protocol, to regulate the chemicals to protect Earth.
El Salvador sees unprecedented decline in homicides since 2015
El Salvador’s homicide rate in 2021 was 3.1 per day; a precipitous drop from 2015’s homicide rate of 18.2 murders per day. It has continued to drop in 2022.