2025 The Year We Looked into the Abyss and Found Stars.

If I had to describe 2025 with a single image, it would be that of a prism. A year that, depending on where you looked, refracted either the most blinding light or the deepest shadows. It has been a period woven with threads of despair and hope, where the roar of conflicts has competed with the silent whisper of discoveries. And today, as we close this chapter, I am overcome by an intense reflection, tinged with both concern and a tenacious, unwavering faith.

The Lengthening Shadow: A World at a Crossroads

My heart has been deeply saddened by the disturbing global trend that has marked these months. We have witnessed how racial and nationalist hatred has raised its voice from the pulpits of power and the cracks of societies, not as a ghost of the past, but as a political tool of the present. Division has been cemented, transforming disagreements into chasms and neighbors into adversaries. In too many corners, we have seen frontal attacks on fundamental freedoms, a slow dismantling of the pillars we thought were firm.

Added to this is a technological uncertainty that leaves us all breathless. Artificial intelligence, and its impact on the world, is advancing at a speed that challenges our ethics, our legislation, and even our understanding. We ask ourselves, with genuine fear: will it liberate us or subjugate us? Will it amplify our humanity or extinguish it?

The planet itself has groaned under the weight of our neglect. The devastating fires in Los Angeles, fueled by winds of a new extreme climate, were not an isolated accident, but a sign in flames. Meanwhile, conflicts like the war in Gaza and the persistent suffering in Ukraine have painted the map with the color of human tragedy, reminding us how fragile peace is.

The Gleam in the Darkness: Seeds for a New Dawn

But precisely because we looked directly into the darkness, the flashes of light are seen more clearly. And 2025, against all odds, has been full of them. They are seeds planted today to flourish in 2026 and beyond. I cling to them tightly.

My gaze first turns to the cosmos. While on Earth we debated borders, humanity signed a pact of collaboration for the Moon. The Artemis Accords, already endorsed by more than 50 nations, are not just a plan to set foot on our satellite again. They are a promise of a permanent and peaceful presence, a beacon of what we can achieve together. Demonstrating that access to space is an increasingly shared reality. Even the emotional farewell of the Akatsuki probe at Venus, loaded with messages from Hatsune Miku fans, speaks to a science that does not renounce culture and heart.

In the vast blue of our own planet, another project has taken my breath away: The Nippon Foundation–GEBCO Seabed 2030. The titanic mission to map 100% of the ocean floor by the end of this decade is perhaps the greatest exploratory adventure of our time. It is the recognition that we have an entire world to discover right here, in the depths that hold the secrets of our climate, our geology, and our own history.

And in the search for a sustainable future, one word has resonated strongly: hydrogen. From being a promise at COP25 in Madrid, it has become the protagonist of the 2025 energy transition. It is no longer a pipe dream; it is the technology that powers fuel cell electric vehicles (FCEVs), promises to decarbonize industries, and stands as a key pillar for achieving balance with our planet. It is the materialization of hope in a chemical equation.

Final Reflection: The Mosaic of Humanity

So, what does this contradictory 2025 leave us with? I am left with the idea of ​​the mosaic.

The painful list of civilians killed in endless conflicts. The death of one Pope and the election of another; the return to power of controversial figures and citizen resistance. This disordered and complex mosaic is a reflection of our time. It pains us because we are human. It amazes us because we are curious. And we keep going because, deep down, we are inherently hopeful.

The year 2026 doesn't arrive as a blank slate. It comes laden with the projects that are germinating today: the mapping of our oceans, the race for clean energy, the construction of a permanent gateway to the Moon. It arrives with the lesson, hard-learned in 2025, that the path of hatred and division only leads to the abyss.

Therefore, as we bid farewell to this year, I choose to focus my gaze not on the chasm, but on the bridges we are building across it. I choose to marvel at the 6,000 exoplanets we have discovered, which teach us the immensity of what is possible. I choose to believe that the same species capable of so much destruction is also the only one capable of mapping the unknown, of searching for life among the stars.