Climate Setbacks and Policy Retreats

In this year-end roundup, Scientific American editors break down how 2025 reshaped science across the board—from sweeping federal upheavals that disrupted long-standing research institutions to public health setbacks driven by vaccine rollbacks and rising measles cases to renewed hostility toward climate science and clean-energy policy and finally to the mind-bending dark energy findings that are shaking up cosmology. Together, their insights reveal how 2025 was a turbulent year for science on Earth and beyond—and what to watch closely in 2026.

Recommended Reading:

Cures for Sickle Cell Disease Arrive After a Painful Journey

NASA’s Moon Race Looks like a Losing Bet

Changing the FDA’s Vaccine Approval Process Could Threaten COVID, Flu Protection for Children

5 Charts Show Climate Progress as Paris Agreement Turns 10

Latest Dark Energy Study Suggests the Universe Is Even Weirder Than We Imagined

E-mail us at sciencequickly@sciam.com if you have any questions, comments or ideas for stories we should cover!

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Science Quickly is produced by Kendra Pierre-Louis, Fonda Mwangi, Sushmita Pathak and Jeff DelViscio. This episode was edited by Alex Sugiura, with fact-checking by Shayna Posses and Aaron Shattuck. Our theme music was composed by Dominic Smith.

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