16 Events From 2016 That Should Give You Hope For The Future

This past year might have been a trying one, but among the negative news stories were plenty of bright spots.

For every celebrity death, there was a scientific breakthrough. For every bit of political nonsense (well, maybe not every bit of nonsense) there were leaps forward in clean energy.

In case you're feeling down about 2016, here's a reminder that, in a lot of ways, the world really is getting better.

1. Populations of tigers, pandas, and manatees all started growing for the first time in years.

^{Julie Larsen Maher ©WCS}

^Source

2. All of Portugal ran on solar energy for four days straight.

^{Jose Manuel Ribeiro/Reuters}

^Source

3. Scientists detected gravitational waves for the first time ever, furthering our understanding of the origins of the universe.

^LIGO

^Source

4. Funds raised by the ALS Ice Bucket Challenge from 2014 led to the discovery of a significant gene responsible for the disease.

^{Elise Amendola/AP}

^Source

5. Sri Lanka was declared malaria-free by the World Health Organization.

^{David Gray/Reuters}

^Source

6. Researchers discovered a special kind of strobe light that temporarily reverses Alzheimer's damage in mice.

^{Flickr/Global Pandora}

^Source

7. Facebook announced a partnership with five fact-checking organizations to prevent fake news from appearing on users' News Feeds.

^{Jeff Chiu/AP Photo}

^Source

8. Chevy debuted the first mass-market electric vehicle, the Bolt, which costs less than $30,000 and can travel further on a single charge than Tesla's vehicles.