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This newly identified species of glass frog (provisional name Nymphargus dajomesae) was found in the Cordillera del Cóndor mountain range in the Andes.Credit: Photo archive PUCE-BIOWEB

It is easy to feel overwhelmed by the state of the world from reading the news.

For that reason, in December last year, Nature gathered seven good news stories of 2025 that offered optimism for the future. Readers devoured these hopeful tales.

In this latest round of positive scientific developments that you might have missed, you’ll learn about the discovery of new species, a promising medical treatment for a fatal mitochondria disease and a biofuel made from date palm trees.

Life-saving treatment

In March, the World Health Organization has approved the use of the first-ever malaria treatment for babies and infants. The drug, called artemether-lumefantrine, is the specifically formulated for infants weighing between two and five kilograms and can now be bought and distributed by the United Nations, non-governmental organizations and other agencies.

In 2024, 610,000 people died from malaria, mostly in Africa, with children under five accounting for about three quarters of the deaths in the region.

Until now, babies and infants have been treated with medication made for children weighing at least five kilograms, meaning that doctors had to break up tablets and estimate the correct amount to administer. This sometimes led to children receiving too much or too little of the drug components, which can be harmful or make treatment ineffective.

Repurposed drug

Six people with a previously untreatable disorder affecting their mitochondrial function have been successfully treated with the drug sildenafil1, sold as Viagra. Leigh syndrome is a severe genetic condition that affects one in 40,000 newborns. Symptoms usually start during infancy or early childhood, and can include developmental delay or regression, muscle weakness, breathing problems or eye conditions. Many children with the condition die from sudden respiratory failure before they turn three.

Scientists in the United States and Europe used stem cells taken from people with Leigh syndrome to test 5,600 existing drugs, identifying Viagra as a potential option. They treated six people who had Leigh syndrome whose ages ranged from nine months to 38 years old. Most saw improvements in their mobility, muscle strength and ability to breathe independently. The treatment still needs to be tested in more people and against a placebo.

Energy from unlikely places

To reduce the need for fossil fuels, alternative sources of energy are in high demand.

A UK team has used bacteria to generate the hydrogen gas2 that is needed to produce drugs, fuels, preserved foods and plastics. Currently, hydrogen is obtained through a process called steam reforming, which releases large amounts of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere. The new process involves growing a strain of Escherichia coli that naturally produces hydrogen when deprived of oxygen. The researchers added a palladium catalyst and substrate for the hydrogen to bind to, and when they removed oxygen, hydrogen was bound to 94% of the substrate.

The team then turned waste bread into a food source that could be given to the bacteria instead of glucose, to show that this type of food waste can be repurposed. The system resulted in a three-fold decrease in greenhouse-gas equivalent emissions compared with using fossil fuels, according to the team’s modelling.

Another research group has developed a way to extract biofuel from dry surface fibres growing in the leaf crown at the top of date palm trees (Phoenix dactylifera)3.

The team heated up the fibres and found that they contained three major classes of hydrocarbon molecule that are used in biofuels. The researchers say their work could also help to avoid the need for expensive waste-management systems to dispose of surface fibres in regions that have a lot of date-palm waste. The authors’ process is an alternative to the current practice of burning the material, which releases pollutants and can cause breathing issues for people exposed to the smoke.

Cancer progress

The benefits of vaccinating young women against human papillomavirus (HPV), which can cause cancers of the genitals, head and neck, have been known for at least a decade. Data from the United States published last month now reveal the positive impact of vaccinating men against the virus4.

Researchers compared the rates of cancer among 510,000 boys and men aged between 9 and 26 years old who were vaccinated against HPV, and another 510,000 who were unvaccinated. They found that vaccination was linked to a 46% reduction in the risk of developing cancers of the oesophagus, head, neck, penis and anal tissue. The HPV vaccine is “an absolute winner” for cancer prevention, says Jarad Martin, a radiation oncologist at private health-care provid

The news is not all bad: five inspiring science stories to lift your mood