A feeling of hopelessness could find its way in easily, even among those of us in the life science industry. Come on, we’ve got the climate crisis and the next potential pandemic to deal with, instead of spending billions and trillions on weapons, power struggles, and debating whether established and safe vaccines actually work or not. To further aggravate the situation, the latest Academic Freedom Index Update (2024) shows that half of the world’s population lives in countries where academic freedom has declined.

Come on, we’ve got the climate crisis and the next potential pandemic to deal with, instead of spending billions and trillions on weapons, power struggles, and debating whether established and safe vaccines actually work or not.

The good thing about science though, is its natural thirst for knowledge, accurate facts, and solutions – and within life sciences, this means solutions to help humanity better survive diseases and gain better health. And among all these disheartening news stories, there are actually a lot of glimmers of hope in the form of great scientific accomplishments – you just have to start reading about them and embrace them. For example, the last decade includes great progress within cancer diagnosis and treatment, and we are just on the threshold of having the same breakthroughs within CNS diseases.

The last decade includes great progress within cancer diagnosis and treatment, and we are just on the threshold of having the same breakthroughs within CNS diseases.

One of our themes in this latest issue (No 01 2025) is Global health & Local efforts, highlighting the situation in our must urgent global health challenges and what is being accomplished here in the Nordics. By hearing about their efforts and solutions, I hope you feel that there are actually very good things being done – whether it is an investment to tackle antibiotic resistance, a pandemic preparedness network, a solution to improve access to biologics, a discovery within malaria research, a drug that strengthens the heart, or the development of a completely new Alzheimer’s vaccine.

In these unstable times, I hope that the scientific community continues to share data and findings with each other, just as they did during the COVID-19 pandemic, and reach across borders when others are closing them. And please, try to focus more on scientific progress and efforts when you read the news next time – and share, salute, and celebrate these glimmers of hope with your family, colleagues, and friends.

About the author

Malin Otmani, M.Sc., is the Editor in Chief of Nordic Life Science. This column was originally published in NLS magazine No 01 2025, out February 2025.