Things that happened in 2016

2016 has been terrible year for some of us, but not all things is bad right? Here are some of the good things that happened :

Gene editing
Professor Sophien Kamoun is a plant biologist from Tunisia. He has always been interested in plant diseases, particularly after seeing the devastating effects of pesticides in developing countries.
Every year, thousands die after using pesticides on diseased crops. What if you could create a type of plant that doesn't get diseases?

Professor Kamoun's Norwich lab aims to develop novel disease-resistant crops
That's what Sophien Kamoun has been experimenting with in his lab at Norwich University, using a new technique invented in the US that came of age this year - gene editing. It allows scientists to modify the genes of living things like plants.
Professor Kamoun experimented with editing the genes of a tomato plant so that it would no longer be susceptible to a particular disease.
First they isolated the gene that makes the tomato vulnerable to that disease. Then they removed the gene from the genome of the tomato. "And it became resilient to the fungal disease," he says.
Gene editing is an incredibly powerful tool. There are real concerns about how such a technology could be used, but regulate it properly, and you could change the way we feed the world.
"Every year we lose enough food to feed hundreds of millions of people to pathogens and parasites," he says. "If we could make some of our crops more resilient, then that would be an unique achievement."

Media captionFergus Walsh explains how gene editing works
It is not only plant biologists who are experimenting with gene editing: doctors are using it to reverse the mutations that cause blindness, to stop cancer cells from multiplying and to make cells resistant to the virus that causes AIDS.
It is why some have called gene editing the invention of the century.
Malaria in Sri Lanka
In 2009, the Sri Lankan government decided to do something extraordinary: to try to eradicate malaria in less than five years.
Dr Hemantha Herath was one of those leading the campaign. He spent years going round the country treating people with malaria.
The lucky ones survived. The unlucky ones could fall into a coma and die. That is why the government wanted to get rid of malaria completely. They had tried to do it before, but when the civil war broke out in the 1980s, health workers couldn't get to the worst affected areas.

When the war ended in 2009, the government saw an opportunity. They decided to track down every last case of malaria, including people who did not even know they had it. It was a bold strategy which no other country had tried.
They tested any patient who came to a hospital who had had a fever in the past. If they had malaria, not only would they be treated, but their family would be tested and their home sprayed with insecticide.
Then health workers went after the mosquitoes themselves. And to catch them, they offered themselves up as bait.
Those efforts paid off. This year it was made official: Sri Lanka is now malaria-free. For Dr Herath, it was a moment of great pride. "We showed to the world that malaria can be eliminated."
Solar plane circumnavigation
When Bertrand Piccard was little he was scared of heights. One day, he decided to cure himself by hangliding.
He didn't just conquered his fear of heights: he became obsessed and was soon leaping off 3000m high mountains, doing hanglider acrobatics.

Bertrand Piccard was determined to fly around the world without using any fuel
Aged 40, he travelled non-stop around the world in a hot air balloon. He made history, but didn't like having to burn propane gas to keep the balloon airborne.
He made a promise: the next time he flew around the world it would be with no fuel. Concerned about rising carbon dioxide emissions, he wanted to show what clean technology could do.
And so the idea for a solar-powered plane was born.
Seventeen years later, after working on several prototypes, his plane was ready. On its outside were over 17,000 solar cells.

So, I hope you're having a good time. Happy new year!