A Giant Volcano Off The Coast Of Oregon Is Scheduled To Erupt In 2026, JWST Finds The Best Evidence Yet Of A Lava World With A Thick Atmosphere, And Much More This Week

This week, legal rights have been granted to the planet’s oldest bee species in a world-first, commonly used ADHD medications don’t work in the way we thought they did, and the human body gave up making its own vitamin C – we might finally know why. Finally, 2025 was a big year for oncology. Here are five ways cancer treatments have advanced over the past year.

The rest of this article is behind a paywall. Please sign in or subscribe to access the full content.

Create an IFLScience account to get all the biggest science news delivered straight to your inbox every Wednesday and Saturday.

A Giant Volcano Off The Coast Of Oregon Failed To Erupt On Time. Its New Schedule: 2026

So. It’s December 31, and that means one thing: that the world – and specifically, Axial Seamount, the volcano lying on the seafloor off of the Pacific Northwest – has just a handful of hours remaining to prove last year’s scientists right by erupting before the end of 2025. Read the full story here

The Planet’s Oldest Bee Species Has Become The World’s First Insect To Be Granted Legal Rights

In a first for nature and the planet, an insect has been given official legal rights. The revolutionary move comes from Peru, where the world’s oldest bee species is responsible for pollinating over 80 percent of Amazonian flora. Read the full story here

ADHD Meds Used By Millions Of Kids And Adults Don’t Work The Way We Thought They Did

Stimulant drugs that are widely used in the treatment of attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) have a different mechanism of action than scientists thought. New data reveals these drugs primarily act on the brain’s reward and wakefulness areas, rather than the regions specifically focused on attention as had previously been assumed. Read the full story here

JWST Finds The Best Evidence Yet Of A Lava World With A Thick Atmosphere

The very ancient super-Earth TOI-561 b must have a thick atmosphere, data from the JWST indicates, or its day side would be even hotter than it is. This represents the strongest evidence yet of a rocky planet beyond the Solar System with such a substantial atmosphere. There’s no chance of life here – at least on the sort of chemistry we understand, given the planet’s extreme heat – but the fact an atmosphere has lingered for so long is encouraging for other worlds. Read the full story here

We Might Finally Know Why Humans Gave Up Making Our Own Vitamin C

Mice that can’t make vitamin C are protected against the parasitic disease schistosomiasis, and possibly similar parasites. The finding might finally explain why deep in our evolutionary journey, humans lost the ability to make one of the most important molecules for our body, forcing us to depend on our food supplies, sometimes to our cost. Read the full story here

TWIS is published weekly on our Linkedin page, join us there for even more content.

Feature of the week:

Here Are 5 Ways In Which Cancer Treatment Advanced In 2025

Cancer touches most of us at some point in our lives, whether it’s getting a diagnosis ourselves or supporting a friend or family member through a treatment journey. Countless hours of scientific research each year are dedicated to developing innovative new therapies and improving survival rates, and 2025 was no exception. Read the full story here