🧠 7 discoveries from 2025 that changed how I see the world
Hey folks! I read a lot of science news, but only a few stories actually stick. This year, I kept bumping into facts that nudged my worldview a few degrees, and now I want you to feel that sting too.
Saturn keeps collecting moons
In 2025, astronomers found 128 more moons around Saturn, bringing the total to 274. When I was born in 1983, Saturn had 17; when I was in primary school, scientists added one more; by the time I got into university in 2000, there were 12 more. That’s roughly 30 moons in the first 300+ years of exploration, and then almost 250 in the next quarter-century. Feels like the Solar System quietly switched into a faster gear while I was busy growing up.
Alchemy at the collider
Scientists saw lead turn into trace amounts of gold at the Large Hadron Collider. Not in direct crashes, but in near-misses where two lead nuclei fly past each other so close that their electromagnetic fields knock out protons. Remove three, and lead (82 protons) becomes gold (79). It’s brief and microscopic, but still: it’s the alchemists’ wet dream, finally made real.
The ozone hole happy ending
When I was at school, one of the biggest environmental stories was the ozone layer. It even made it into the plot of one of my favourite kids’ books (something like a Soviet proto–Harry Potter). In 2025, the Antarctic ozone hole shrank again, now the smallest since 2019. It’s the clearest kind of proof that policy can work: after the Montreal Protocol restricted the use of harmful chemicals, emissions dropped sharply, and the atmosphere has been slowly recovering. By the late 2060s, the ozone hole could be gone if we keep replacing these chemicals with safer alternatives.
Meet the new shape
Mathematicians described a new geometric figure: the noperthedron, with 90 vertices, 240 edges, and 152 faces. Here’s the twist: one noperthedron cannot pass through the opening of another identical noperthedron, no matter how you rotate it or shift it. A cube can pass through a cube-shaped hole (it sounds wrong, but it’s true), and many other shapes can too, but this one breaks the old assumption that any shape must have some orientation that makes the “pass through itself” trick possible.
Uralic languages pushed east
Researchers traced the origins of Uralic languages — Hungarian, Finnish, Estonian, and others — much farther east than many people expected. Linguists have argued for decades: some place the homeland near the Urals, others push it deeper into Asia. A new study analysed ancient DNA from 180 newly sequenced individuals alongside 1,000+ existing samples and points to north-east Siberia, around modern Yakutia, about 4,500 years ago. The Nature paper has dozens of co-authors, including scientists from Siberian universities, a rare example of ongoing collaboration.
A reality signal in the brain
Scientists found a mechanism that helps the brain distinguish between what we imagine and what we actually see. When I picture an apple, my brain activity can look a lot like it does when I’m staring at a real apple. The difference seems to be an internal stamp: the fusiform gyrus in the temporal lobe produces a “reality signal”, and another brain area checks it before deciding “outside world” versus “inside my head”. If that system misfires, the brain can mistake an internal image for a real external object — one possible route to hallucinations.
Alcohol as social glue
Researchers tested the idea that alcohol helped humans build more complex societies by looking across 186 traditional cultures. They found a steady link: cultures with their own fermented drinks tended to have more levels of leadership and management. The logic is simple enough: shared feasts strengthen ties, make negotiation easier, and help leaders gather people around joint tasks. But the effect is moderate, and agriculture and religion mattered far more. So alcohol looks less like a prime mover and more like a handy tool in the civilisation kit.
And that’s it for today! Thanks for reading! If you enjoy the newsletter, share it with a friend. And if you really enjoyed it, consider upgrading to a paid subscription: it helps support my work and means a lot.
Elia Kabanov is a science writer covering the past, present and future of technology (@metkere).
Cover art: Elia Kabanov feat. DALL-E. Noperthedron image: Jakob Steininger and Sergey Yurkevich.