Liang Wenfeng, founder of DeepSeek, and Chinese geoscientist Du Mengran have been named to Nature’s 10 for 2025. Liang is recognized for advancing powerful, cost-efficient large-scale AI, while Du is honored for pioneering hadal-zone dives that uncovered Earth’s deepest known animal ecosystems. In January, DeepSeek’s R1 model stunned the AI community by matching top-tier performance at far lower cost, prompting a reassessment of the United States’ lead in AI. Du’s team explored below 6 km in the Kuril–Kamchatka Trench, revealing a thriving ecosystem at unprecedented depths. This year’s list spans astronomy, deep-ocean research, biomedicine, research integrity, public health policy, and AI, reflecting how work at the largest and smallest scales—and behind-the-scenes efforts in integrity and health policy—are shaping science and society. Compiled by Nature editors, the selection is neither a prize nor a ranking, but a showcase of pivotal 2025 developments and the people behind them.
