Researchers at Institute of Science Tokyo (Science Tokyo) have developed a new liquid–metal process that can recover freshwater and magnesium resources from the concentrated brine. By combining liquid-tin direct-contact distillation with vacuum degassing, the method removes chlorine- and sulfur-containing species from the tin and enables magnesium-rich precipitates, with MgO as the major crystalline phase, to be recovered during cooling. More than 99% of the magnesium taken up by the liquid tin was recovered.

The size distribution of marine primary organic aerosols, the organic component of sea spray, has been measured for the first time down to 35 nanometres from long-term observations in clean North Atlantic air. It is bimodal, whereas the parameterization in major climate models is unimodal and underestimates particle number threefold. The resulting underestimate in cloud condensation nuclei reaches 16 to 64 per cent at marine supersaturations, assuming 30 per cent lower surface tension.

A steady “snowfall” of tiny particles carries carbon, nutrients and pollution from the ocean’s surface toward the deep sea. Scientists can see those particles sinking, but determining exactly what they contain is much harder. University of Rhode Island Graduate School of Oceanography Research Professor Melissa Omand is turning to artificial intelligence to help solve that problem. The National Science Foundation awarded nearly $700,000 to the team for the three-year project, which is scheduled to begin in January 2027 and run through December 2029.

Mongolian palaeontologist Dr Bolortsetseg Minjin, known for her work to protect and repatriate fossils and expand dinosaur-themed science, received a state honour medal from her country in September.

In a paper published in SCIENCE CHINA Earth Sciences, a team led by Academician Fahu Chen from Institute of Tibetan Plateau Research, Chinese Academy of Sciences, reconstructed Holocene precipitation changes across the East Asian monsoon region of eastern China. The study shows that precipitation varied between northern and southern China in an alternating pattern, which may have supported the parallel development of early agricultural societies and later contributed to the rise of the Central Plains and the formation of the pluralistic and integrated Chinese civilization.