Science news this week: Polar vortices and volcanoes undersea

Split image of volcano and extreme winter storms — Science news this week includes underwater volcanoes and extreme winter storms. (Image credit: NOAA/Jose Luis Pelaez via Getty Images)

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West Coast volcano about to blow
Life's Little Mysteries
Legendary ancient battleground uncovered
Also in science news this week
Science Spotlight
Something for the weekend
Science in pictures

It's a chilly start to 2025 for many as an expanding polar vortex is expected to bring dangerously low temperatures to the eastern half of the U.S. While it's too early for precise measurements, forecasters predict that this month could be the coldest January in the U.S. for more than a decade.

But weather forecasts are not the only 2025 predictions in this week's science news…

West Coast volcano about to blow

Undersea volcano off Oregon coast could erupt this year, geologists predict

A bathymetric image of the Axial volcano — A bathymetric map of the Axial volcano off the coast of Oregon. (Image credit: NOAA)

Axial is an underwater volcano located 300 miles (480 kilometers) west of Cannon Beach, Oregon. The seamount erupts fairly regularly and is relatively close to the shore, making it a perfect site for studying volcanic activity.

Predicting when a volcano is going to erupt is a difficult feat — and one that usually can only be done a couple of days in advance. However, volcanologists hope that by studying Axial, they may be able to gain new insights into how a volcano's surface activity reflects the movement of magma and fluids underneath, which could help them improve longer-term eruption forecasting.

Discover more planet earth news

—What's the difference between an active, dormant and extinct volcano?

—The oldest rocks on Earth

—Earth news quiz 2024: Test yourself on this year's biggest stories about our planet

Life's Little Mysteries

Could we ever retrieve memories from a dead person's brain?

a 3d rendering of the brain breaking apart into little pieces — Could we ever retrieve memories from the dead? (Image credit: Eoneren via Getty Images)

Neuroscience has advanced exponentially in recent decades, and we now have a pretty good idea of the physical locations where memories are stored in the brain. But could we ever isolate specific memories and program them into machine learning algorithms to replay those special moments?

Legendary ancient battleground uncovered

Lost site of Alexander the Great's famous battle against ancient Persians discovered in Turkey

an engraving of Alexander the Great fighting at Granicus — A colorized engraving of Alexander the Great fighting at the Battle of the Granicus. (Image credit: mikroman6 via Getty Images)

The Battle of the Granicus in 334 B.C. was one of the most significant turning points in the rise of the famous Macedonian king, Alexander the Great. However, the site of the battlefield has been somewhat of a mystery — until now.

Archaeologists have been sniffing around the area in northwest Turkey since the 19th century, and human skeletons and weapons have been found at the site. However, thanks to modern techniques, researchers have reconstructed what the area might have looked like in Alexander's time, to further support theories of the battleground's location and rule out other contenders.

Discover more archaeology news

—10 stunning ancient Egyptian discoveries made in 2024, from hidden temples to hallucinogenic rituals

—2,000-year-old RSVP: A birthday invitation from the Roman frontier that has the earliest known Latin written by a woman

—From Stonehenge's origins to ice age baby genetics — how well did you follow this year's top archaeology stories?

Also in science news this week

—Pet cats in Los Angeles County are catching bird flu from raw food, milk

—Diagnostic dilemma: A surgeon accidentally transplanted a tumor into his own hand

—Weird bumps in UK quarry turn out to be 166 million-year-old dinosaur 'highway' for some of Jurassic's biggest dinosaurs

—Viral disease HMPV is on the rise among kids in China — what is it?

Science Spotlight

8 of the weirdest robots in the world right now

Screenshot from a video showing a robotic torso springing to life. The torso and the background are white. — From human-like torsos to nanobots, robots got weirder in 2024. (Image credit: Clone Robotics)

The field of robotics continues to expand and stretch to new frontiers, from microscopic drug delivery services to humanoid (and pet-like) companions. We've collated a list of 8 of the weirdest robots in the world right now, from impressive feats of engineering to just plain freaky.

Something for the weekend

If you're looking for something a little longer to read over the weekend, here are some of the best long reads, book excerpts and interviews published this week:

—AI could shrink our brain

—James Webb Space Telescope quiz: How well do you know the world's most powerful telescope?

—Tristan da Cunha: The most remote inhabited island on Earth, forged from a supercontinent breakup

And something for the sky watchers:

—Quadrantid meteor shower: How to watch the first 'shooting stars' of 2025 rain over Earth tonight

—Saturn will disappear behind the moon for skywatchers in Europe on Saturday. Here's how to see it.

—The 10 best stargazing events of 2025

Science in pictures

Earth from space: 'Lake of clouds' appears between volcanic nesting dolls in Russia via rare mirror-like phenomenon

A satellite photo showing a volcano inside a massive crater lake with clouds reflected perfectly in the water's surface — Kol'tsevoye Lake is sandwiched between both halves of the Krenitsyna Volcano on Russia's Onekotan Island. In this astronaut photo, it appears to be full of clouds — but this is just an illusion. (Image credit: NASA/ISS Program)

There's something magical about seeing Earth from an airplane window — even more so if you're an astronaut on the International Space Station (ISS). And sometimes, Earth can treat us to impressive optical illusions that can only be seen from above.

In this image, an astronaut has captured one of Russia's deepest lakes — Kol'tsevoye Lake — sandwiched between two halves of a volcano as its surface transformed into a reflective sea of swirling clouds. The illusion occurred thanks to a rare mirror-like phenomenon, known as "sunglint," which relies on sunlight bouncing off a watery surface at an angle.

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Pandora is the trending news editor at Live Science. She is also a science presenter and previously worked as Senior Science and Health Reporter at Newsweek. Pandora holds a Biological Sciences degree from the University of Oxford, where she specialised in biochemistry and molecular biology.