The El Niño-Southern Oscillation (ENSO) cycle moves between warmer-than-average Pacific Ocean surface water temperatures during El Niño phases to colder-than-average surface water temperatures during La Niña phases. Scientists have observed that the surface temperatures of water in the central and eastern Pacific affect the number and strength of tropical cyclones (TCs) that develop in the North Atlantic Ocean and the probability those TCs will make landfall. Researchers recently investigated the effects of El Niño and La Niña dissipation events on and factors that contribute to TC development in the North Atlantic Ocean.

In a paper published in SCIENCE CHINA Earth Sciences, an international team of researchers present the new details about the enhancement of aragonite precipitation during photosynthesis in Skeletonema costatum in artificial and natural seawater. By directly measuring cell surfaces, it reveals the mechanism of diatom-mediated promotion of CaCO₃ precipitation. Based on this mechanism, it suggests that diatom-mediated calcification can occur in the oceans, which is supported by relevant phenomena. The newly found calcification pathway connects particulate inorganic and organic carbon flux, facilitating the reassessment of marine carbon export fluxes and CO₂ sequestration efficiency. And this discovery may have significant implications for evaluating marine carbon cycling and predicting the impacts of future ocean acidification.

How can we precisely control microscale surfaces using magnetic fields?

Researchers from Sun Yat-sen University, Worcester Polytechnic Institute, and others propose a unified framework for designing magnetically responsive microstructured surfaces (MRMFSs).

Published in International Journal of Extreme Manufacturing, this review outlines advances in structure, fabrication, and actuation, with future potential in micro-manipulation, soft robotics, sensing, and smart materials.

Researchers Wooyoung Jin and Hyungyeon Cha from the Ulsan Advanced Energy Technology R&D Center at the Korea Institute of Energy Research (KIER, President Chang-Keun Yi) have resolved a long-standing challenge in high-Ni cathode materials, a key component of next-generation electric vehicle (EV) batteries.

In a paper published in Science China Earth Sciences, a team of scientists present a novel application of data-driven AI model to real-time predictions of the 2023–2024 climate conditions in the tropical Pacific. As configured, this AI-based model can adequately represent the coupled ocean-atmosphere interactions, with its prediction procedure being executed in a rolling manner, in which the related key fields during multi-month time intervals (TIs) are taken for input predictors serving as initial conditions. Sensitivity experiments are conducted to examine how prediction skills are affected by the input predictor specifications, including TIs. A comparison with other dynamic coupled models is also made to demonstrate the prediction performance for the 2023–2024 El Niño event.

How can we fabricate an artificial brain that mimics the natural brain, from structure to function?

In response to this question, researchers from Xi’an Jiaotong University published a review paper outlining the primary requirements and challenges in biomanufacturing brain-like tissue, summarizing the existing technologies, strategies, and characteristics, and reviewing the cutting-edge developments in biomanufacturing central neural repair prosthetics, brain development models, brain disease models, and brain-inspired biocomputing models.

This review helps readers systematically understand the challenges, current progress, and future directions of brain-like living tissue manufacturing.