The year in pictures

Every picture tells a story. And together, these seven photos tell a story about 2025. From microscopic crystals in asteroid debris nearly as old as the solar system to a smiling baby who benefited from a medical first, these images showcase how chemistry can both explain the world around us and make it a better place.Los Angeles on fireFirefighters took on some of the most destructive wildfires in California history when a series of fires ignited across Los Angeles in January. Sparked outside the typical wildfire season, they were a devastating reminder of how climate change can fuel these disasters. The blazes also illuminated the growing threat of fire in the wildland-urban interface as people increasingly encroach on nature. The burning of plastics and other building materials emits a unique brew of toxic air pollutants that chemists are still trying to understand, we reported in our series New Normal: Living at Wildfires’ Edge. ‘Pinnacle of personalized medicine’In February, baby K. J. Muldoon became the first person in the world to receive a custom-made CRISPR gene-editing therapy. Muldoon was born with a rare disorder in which ammonia accumulates in the blood at toxic levels. There’s no cure, but within just 6 months of Muldoon’s diagnosis, researchers developed a treatment to mend the defective gene at fault (N. Engl. J. Med. 2025, DOI: 10.1056/NEJMoa2504747). Whether it’s a permanent fix remains to be seen, but an observer told C&EN in May that this feat represents “a pinnacle of personalized medicine.”De-extinction disputeThese white, fluffy