Author: Information is Beautiful

Banning abortion doesn’t stop women from needing one. It can force them into unsafe procedures, putting their health and lives at risk. Thankfully, women’s reproductive rights have come a long way. Decades of campaigning, legal challenges and healthcare reform have helped make abortion legal under at least some circumstances in 90% of countries. But the […]

Cancer is devastating for dogs and their owners. But researchers at Yale University have developed a promising new vaccine that teaches a dog’s immune system to recognise and attack cancer cells. In early trials involving dogs with bone cancer, one-year survival rates rose from around 35% with conventional treatment to 65% among vaccinated dogs. Some […]

For families living in extreme poverty, sending a child to work can be a question of survival. Breaking that cycle takes more than simply banning the practice. Affordable schooling. Decent wages for adults. Financial support for struggling households. These interventions have helped drive a historic decline in child labour. Around 138 million children remain affected, […]

Two drops of oral vaccine. That’s all it takes to protect a child from polio and possible permanent paralysis. In 1988, the World Health Organization, Rotary International and private and national partners set out to deliver those drops to every child on Earth. It became the largest public health campaign in history. Billions of children […]

Polio terrified parents for generations, paralysed hundreds of thousands of people a year. There was no cure. Swimming pools closed in summer. Children ended up in leg braces or iron lungs. Then came Jonas Salk’s vaccine in 1955, and Albert Sabin’s oral version soon after. Mass vaccination did the rest. Alongside rapid response to outbreaks […]

Slow progress is still progress. And the gender pay gap is a complex problem. It’s rarely about one boss paying one woman less. Women are concentrated in lower-paid sectors, take on more part-time work and still face unequal career progression and discrimination, as importantly, unpaid care, and often see their earnings stall after having children. […]

Cancer remains one of America’s biggest killers. But the chances of dying from it have changed dramatically. More screening. Better surgery. More precise radiotherapy. Improved treatments, tailored to specific cancers. Together, these advances have steadily pushed mortality down. The battle is far from won – and progress hasn’t been equal for every cancer or every […]

Thirty-four countries. Over 80% renewable. Every one of them proof that a clean grid isn’t a pipe dream. Each found its own route. Kenya taps geothermal steam from the Rift Valley. Mountain rivers power Bhutan and Nepal. Denmark and Lithuania harvest the wind. Iceland runs on volcanic heat. Uruguay went from oil imports to near-total […]

In the 20th century, commercial whaling devastated the world’s great whales. Some populations were pushed close to extinction before international protections gave them the chance to recover. Whales grow slowly. Mature slowly. Reproduce slowly. So when their numbers collapse, recovery takes time. But recover they have. Several populations have rebounded dramatically. Blue whales have multiplied […]

The electric car has zoomed from niche to mainstream at remarkable speed. Better batteries have extended driving ranges. Prices have fallen. Charging networks have expanded. Governments have introduced incentives and tougher emissions rules. Car makers have released more and cheaper models. In some markets they’re already the norm. Leading to cleaner air, quieter streets and […]