24 Things That Made the World a Better Place in 2024

Let’s face it—2024 has felt at times like a relentless conveyor belt of doom. The climate crisis is still gaining momentum, COP underlined the lack of consensus on what to do about it, and attempts to create a plastics treaty failed. Political violence rose to the surface in the US, and there was an election result that foretells four years of chaos and persecution for many. And war, conflict, and violence continue to afflict millions worldwide, from the DRC to South Sudan, Haiti to Yemen, Ukraine to Gaza.

But in the midst of the darkness, there were some bright rays of light. Scientists made big strides in countering some of the greatest health problems faced by humanity. Efforts to fight climate change have pressed on. And a cute baby hippo bit her zookeeper’s knee in a fit of childish rage, launching a thousand memes. Here’s our rundown of the best news to come out of 2024.

Routine Childhood Vaccination Against Malaria Began

Malaria has proven a stubborn foe—the quest to produce a vaccine against it began more than a century ago. Now, two are available, and in early 2024, the world’s first routine childhood immunization campaign against malaria began in Cameroon. The disease kills more than half a million people worldwide every year, but this could be the starting point for bringing this number down significantly. Read more on WIRED.

Humans Gathered Their First Rocks From the Far Side of the Moon

In May, China’s Chang’e-6 mission began its journey to the far side of the moon, and when it returned to Earth on June 25, it was carrying a very precious cargo—almost two kilos of lunar material from a region rarely glimpsed by humans, the dark side of the moon. Researchers hope these rock samples will help reveal how the moon, and other planets, evolved. Read more at Nature.

SpaceX’s Starship Completed a Stunning Vertical Landing

Elon Musk has said Starships will start journeying to Mars in 2026. That’s an ambitious goal, but SpaceX made great progress toward it this year. The Starship program completed a number of test flights, the most eye-catching being the fifth test, in October, which saw the giant craft launch successfully and its booster return to and land on its launch tower. It was an exhilarating spectacle—and potentially a historic milestone in the history of interplanetary travel. Read more on Ars Technica.

Millions Saw the Northern Lights for the First Time

We’re currently close to solar maximum, the peak of the sun’s predictable 11-year cycle of activity, which is resulting in large waves of charged particles being spewed out from the star. When these reach Earth they create auroras, and bigger waves result in the northern and southern lights being visible at latitudes far from our planet’s poles. With the peak of solar maximum not arriving until the middle of next year, we can expect further vivid and widespread auroras for some more time yet. Read more on WIRED.

HIV Vaccines Moved Closer to Reality

One reason HIV has been such a threat is because there’s no vaccine against it. Making one remains fiendishly difficult—the virus mutates rapidly, meaning it can quickly outmaneuver immune defenses. But, for the first time, researchers have successfully managed to use an experimental vaccine to stimulate broadly neutralizing antibodies against many forms of the virus, paving the way for a potential vaccine. The next step is to get the human body to produce these antibodies in greater quantities. Read more on WIRED.

A PhD Student Discovered a Lost Mayan City

Archaeologists discovered an ancient lost Mayan city this year, unearthing monumental structures such as pyramids and plazas using lidar—a form of laser mapping that works a bit like radar. Named Valeriana, the city is believed to have been founded before 150 AD. The first person to notice the city’s existence was Luke Auld-Thomas, a PhD student at Tulane University in Louisiana, USA. Hear from Luke about making the discovery on WIRED.

The UK Shut Off Its Last Coal Power Station

For the first time since 1882, the United Kingdom has no coal-fired power plants generating electricity, becoming the first country in the G7 to move fully away from coal power. A number of factors combined to bring about the end of coal power in Britain: the growth of natural gas-powered plants and renewables, pollution controls, carbon pricing, and the UK government’s goal to hit net-zero greenhouse gas emissions by 2050. Read more on Ars Technica.

New Solar Panels Broke Records for Producing Electricity

Experimental cells that combine silicon with a material called perovskite broke the efficiency record for converting solar energy into electricity, producing 60 percent more electricity than conventional solar cells. However, these record-breaking cells are currently made in laboratories and are smaller than a postage stamp. Translating such high performance to meter-square areas remains a vast challenge. Read more on WIRED.

Los Angeles Showed the Benefits of Becoming a Sponge City

Back in February, LA received half a year’s worth of rain in a day—but the city’s water managers were prepared. In recent years LA has been preparing for more extreme rainfall by transforming into a “sponge city,” replacing impermeable surfaces, like concrete, with permeable ones, like dirt and plants. This avoids flash flooding while at the same time channeling water into the region’s aquifers, to help in times of drought. This is something more and more cities will need to do as the world warms. Read more on WIRED.

A Startup Unlocked a Way to Make Cheap Insulin

At a time when many Americans are struggling to afford the drugs they need to manage their diabetes, Houston biotech startup rBIO is working to produce an affordable copycat version of insulin via a process involving custom-made bacteria. rBIO says its insulin product is structurally and functionally similar to a brand-name drug, and the company will now move on to clinical testing. Read more on WIRED.

Retinal Implants Restored Vision in Blind People

Science Corporation—a California-based brain-computer interface company—is developing an experimental eye implant to restore vision. After receiving the implant as part of a clinical trial, some participants could see well enough to read from a book, play cards, or fill in a crossword puzzle despite being legally blind. Read more on WIRED.

Scientists Tested a Protective Pill for Lyme Disease

Tarsus Pharmaceuticals is developing a pill for humans that could protect against tick-borne Lyme disease for several weeks at a time. In February, the Irvine, California–based biotech company announced results from a small, early-stage trial showing that 24 hours after taking the drug, it can kill ticks on people, with the effects lasting for up to 30 days. Read more on WIRED.

Weight Loss Drugs Showed Promise Against a Host of Diseases

Ozempic, Zepbound, and other GLP-1 drugs seem to boost heart health, protect the kidneys, improve sleep apnea, and lower the risk of certain obesity-related cancers. Recent studies have also hinted at their potential to treat addiction and even slow the cognitive decline that comes with dementia. Scientists are still working out exactly why they seem to have these positive effects. Read more on WIRED.

The NFL Let Players Wear Anti-Concussion Caps in Games

Fans may not have warmed to them, but Guardian Caps’ results speak for themselves—since they started being used in practices in 2022, concussions have roughly halved in these sessions. Only a handful of football players have used the caps in NFL games so far, but with the health impacts of concussion under the spotlight, expect to see them—or even more effective successors—become gradually more and more common. Read more on WIRED.

Global EV Sales Continued to Rise Strongly

November 2024 saw the most electric vehicles sold worldwide in a month ever—1.8 million—breaking a record set just the month before. EV sales have slowed in Europe but are surging in China, and globally, year-on-year growth of EVs in 2024 was about 25 percent, according to the consultancy firm Rho Motion. Read more on Euronews.

Adult Obesity in the US Fell—for the First Time in a Decade

Rates of obesity in US adults dipped slightly in 2024, halting the steady increase seen over the past decade. Observers have been quick to point to the influence of Ozempic, Wegovy, Zepbound, and other GLP-1 drugs, but researchers caution that Covid-19 may also have played a role—as it disproportionately killed Americans with obesity. Read more at CNBC.

Geneticists Solved the Mystery of Why Some Cats Are Orange

Two independent studies run by American and Japanese researchers appear to have answered the enduring question of why some cats have orange coats. It turns out the culprit is a genetic variant on cats’ X chromosome. The research also explains why tortoiseshell and calico cats tend to be females. Read more at Smithsonian Magazine.

The World’s Largest Sail Cargo Ship Successfully Crossed the Atlantic

The wind-propelled Anemos left the French port of Le Havre on August 16 and reached New York on September 3, having carried 1,200 tons of cargo across the Atlantic. The sail ship traveled at an average speed of 10 knots (18.5 km/h)—slower than fossil-fuel-powered ships, which average 14 to 25 knots (25 to 46 km/h)—but it eliminated between 150 and 200 metric tons of CO₂ emissions on its journey. It’s estimated that shipping produces 900 million tons of CO₂ each year—roughly 3 percent of global emissions. Read more on RFI.

Paris’s Notre Dame Cathedral Reopened

It’s been a tumultuous year in French politics, but there was at least some good news at the end of 2024: After being badly damaged by a fire in its roof-space in 2019, Notre Dame reopened its doors in December after five years of repair and renovation works. The cathedral boasts a new altar and a dazzling ivory-colored interior. Repair works are continuing on the exterior of the building. Read more on the Guardian.

The US Homicide Rate Continued to Decline

In 2020, homicides in US cities rose on average by 30 percent—the largest recorded spike in American history. They remained high for several years, before beginning to fall, and are now projected to return to pre-2020 levels for the first time. Data suggests that male unemployment and school closures, particularly in low-income neighborhoods, as a result of the pandemic were the key drivers of the rise in violence. Read more on Brookings.

One of the World’s Rarest Cats Is No Longer Endangered

The Iberian lynx, one the rarest species of cat in the world, is no longer classified as endangered. There are now thought to be more than 2,000 of these wild cats spread across Spain and Portugal—up from just 62 mature cats back in 2001. Read more on the BBC.

EVs Are Lasting Longer Than Predicted

Rather than having a shorter lifespan than internal combustion engines, as everyone thought, EV batteries may actually last longer. Warranties typically cover EV batteries for eight years, but they look like they might last for up to 20. But right now it is hard to be certain—there are very few EVs on the road that are even a decade old. Read more on WIRED.

These Guys Hacked AirPods to Give Their Grandmas Hearing Aids

When Apple released a software update that enabled its AirPods Pro 2 earbuds to act as hearing aids, Rithwik Jayasimha rushed out to get some for his grandma—only to realize location restrictions meant the feature didn’t work in India. Most people would just admit defeat, but Jayasimha grabbed two friends, some foil, and a microwave, and set to work building a homemade device to get rid of the geolocation restrictions. Read more on WIRED.

A Baby Pygmy Hippo Conquered the Internet

In July, a global sensation was born. Since being revealed to the public on July 25 at Khao Kheow Open Zoo in Thailand, Moo Deng (which translates as “Bouncy Pork”) has become one of the most recognizable faces of the internet. Sure, she’s cute. But what’s propelled her to stardom is her sassy personality: sitting in her mom’s food bowl, biting her zookeeper, charging around her enclosure, and screaming. In 2024, lots of people could relate. Read more at The New York Times.