Table of Content

25 February 2025, Volume 47 Issue 1

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Invited Special Paper

From computer-aided drug design to artificial intelligence-driven drug design

BIAN Yuemin

2025, 47(1):  1-10.  doi:10.3969/j.issn.0253-9608.2025.01.001

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The rapid advancement of computational science continues to drive innovation and create opportunities in the field of drug discovery. With the ongoing expansion of data in the life sciences and the iterative improvement of computational hardware, computational chemistry and cheminformatics have become indispensable tools for researchers in preclinical drug design. This article focuses on two key themes — computer-aided drug design (CADD) and artificial intelligence-driven drug design (AIDD) — to provide a concise overview of the interdisciplinary exploration and innovation at the intersection of computational science and drug discovery, as well as the applications and progress related to preclinical small-molecule drug development.




SPECIAL TOPIC

Negative feedbacks in the Earth’s long-term carbon cycle

HUANG Xiangtong, YANG Shouye

2025, 47(1):  11-22.  doi:10.3969/j.issn.0253-9608.2025.01.002

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Why is Earth the only known habitable and life-supporting planet in the solar system among the terrestrial planets? Understanding the key to this question lies in a deep comprehension of Earth’s long-term carbon cycle processes and its negative feedback mechanisms. This article, based on the framework of Earth’s carbon cycle composition, fluxes, and response times, will emphasize the importance of negative feedbacks in maintaining climate stability and carbon cycle balance, and will provide a detailed introduction to various negative feedback mechanisms, including terrestrial silicate weathering, marine silicate weathering, reverse weathering, organic carbon burial, and fossil carbon oxidation. Through the review of hot topics in the Earth’s carbon cycle, it is revealed that the long-term stability of Earth’s climate depends on the synergistic action of multiple negative feedback mechanisms, and the extent of their influence varies across different geological periods. To further understand the mechanisms of carbon cycle negative feedback, future research should adhere to the principles of Earth system science, integrating the rich records and indicators from disciplines such as sedimentology, tectonics, paleoclimatology, and geochemistry, and combining them with advanced numerical simulation and artificial intelligence technologies to conduct quantitative research.



Weathering and reverse weathering processes in marine environments

WU Xuechao, YANG Shouye

2025, 47(1):  23-32.  doi:10.3969/j.issn.0253-9608.2025.01.003

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The dissolution of weathering processes in marine environments can directly alter the geochemical composition of seawater and consume carbon dioxide (CO₂), and indirectly impact carbon cycling and climate change by promoting marine primary productivity. In contrast, submarine reverse weathering, by incorporating dissolved ions and alkalinity in seawater to form authigenic clay, consumes CO₂ and serves as the sink for many key elements in seawater, thus acting as an important driver of climate change. Marine weathering and reverse weathering mostly happen on seafloor and alter the geochemical compositions of both reactive fluids and solid phases such as rocks and sediments on seafloor. These weathering processes can further affect the deeper Earth’s geochemical cycles when weathered seafloor basalts and altered sediments are subducted into the deep mantle. Under the goal of marine carbon neutralization, a thorough understanding of the natural processes and mechanisms of marine and submarine weathering and reverse weathering is crucial for assessing potential marine negative emission strategies.





The continued weathering of highland erosional materials in lowlands regulates global climate change

GUO Yulong, YANG Bo, HAN Xue, YANG Shouye

2025, 47(1):  33-39.  doi:10.3969/j.issn.0253-9608.2025.01.004

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Continental silicate weathering is a signifificant geological carbon sink on tectonic timescales. The continued weathering of highland erosional materials in lowlands refers to the process in which large quantities of fresh silicate minerals, generated by uplift and erosion in orogenic belts, are transported to plains with more favorable climatic conditions for further chemical weathering. This represents a natural “enhanced weathering” process, contributing to carbon sequestration. Major forms of this process include the flfloodplain weathering of flfluvial sediments, pedogenic weathering of loess deposits, and the continued weathering of exposed shelf sediments during low sea-level periods. Against the backdrop of the Cenozoic uplift of the Tibetan Plateau, the continued weathering of highland erosional materials in lowlands has allowed chemical weathering rates to sustain their response to increasing erosion rates under high erosion conditions, thereby enhancing the capacity of silicate weathering to drive global cooling. On the other hand, the transport of fresh minerals from highlands to lowlands makes their chemical weathering processes heavily inflfluenced by climatic conditions, providing a negative feedback mechanism for climate change. Therefore, the continued weathering of highland erosional materials in lowlands is a crucial mechanism by which sediment source-to-sink systems regulate global carbon cycle balance and climate stability. It is recommended to deepen research on the continued weathering of highland erosional materials in lowlands from the perspective of “source-to-sink” systems and Earth system science. This can be achieved through studies of modern processes, geological records, and numerical simulations, to uncover the regulatory effects of plateau uplift and sedimentary source-to-sink system evolution on the global carbon cycle and climate change across difffferent spatial and temporal scales.



Preliminary study on the influence of Southeast Asian island arc weathering and organic carbon burial on carbon cycle in the Late Cenozoic period

ZHANG Meiru, YU Zhaojie, KANG Xiaoying, LI Xinyu, AN Ning, WAN Shiming

2025, 47(1):  40-51.  doi:10.3969/j.issn.0253-9608.2025.01.005

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The study of the interactions between tectonic-weathering-climate change in the Cenozoic is one of the frontier directions in earth system science research, and has important reference signifificance for deeply understanding the habitability of the Earth’s environment. On the million-year timescales, silicate weathering and organic carbon burial are the key ways to regulate atmospheric CO₂ concentrations and maintain climate stability. However, the mechanism of global climate cooling in the Cenozoic is still unclear, and the existing records of global weathering flflux are not consistent, which may be affffected by various factors. This paper discusses the several hypotheses and main geological records related to the carbon cycle and climate cooling in the Cenozoic that have been proposed. Regarding the controversy over whether low-latitude island arc weathering drives or provides negative feedback for Cenozoic climate cooling, this paper takes Southeast Asia, the largest island arc region in the world, as an example to evaluate the carbon cycle effffects of silicate weathering and organic carbon burial since the Late Cenozoic, and comprehensively explains the possible effects of increased island arc exposure area and increased vegetation types on the carbon cycle. This provides clues for revealing the possible role of tropical island arc weathering and organic carbon burial in the Cenozoic climate cooling.






Weathering fluxes and carbon sink in continental silicate rock

LUO Kai, MA Jinlong, WEI Gangjian, ZHU Guanhong, WANG Jiahao, WANG Zhibing

2025, 47(1):  52-63.  doi:10.3969/j.issn.0253-9608.2025.01.006

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Weathering of continental silicate rocks and subsequent carbonate burial are crucial geological processes for removing carbon dioxide from surface carbon pools, and are widely recognized that is important for regulating global atmospheric carbon dioxide levels and the evolution of Earth's climate. Accurate assessment of the weathering flfluxes of continental silicate rocks and their CO₂ consumption flfluxes has long been a signifificant frontier of geoscientifific research. In this view, this paper systematically compiles the calculational models and their key parameters for quantifying weathering flfluxes of silicate rocks, reviews the advantages, disadvantages, and scope of each model, and anticipates how weathering flfluxes of silicate rocks can be more accurately quantifified in the future. In addition, based on the existing weathering flfluxes calculation model, the global CO₂ flfluxes consumed by chemical weathering of silicate rocks are comprehensively assessed, and a qualitative and/or quantitative basis for discriminating climate change due to weathering is proposed.






The potential and challenges of non-traditional Li isotopes on tracing continental weathering

ZHANG Fei, HU Yadan, CAO Yang, WANG Yongtao, HOU Silu

2025, 47(1):  64-78.  doi:10.3969/j.issn.0253-9608.2025.01.007

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Global cooling has formed a livable climate environment for humans since the late Cenozoic era. Over geological timescale, continental silicate rocks absorb CO₂ greenhouse gases from the atmosphere through chemical weathering, which is believed to play a critical role in regulating long-term climate change on Earth. However, the factors of controlling the continental weathering rate that are the forefront and challenge of earth science research have received widespread attentions from the scientific community since the second half of the 20th century. This article reviews the important progress made in the field of continental weathering research over the past decades, with a focus on sorting out and summarizing the potential, controversies, and challenges of using new non-traditional stable Li isotopes to trace continental weathering. We hope that this will provide valuable clues for future continental weathering research, and further accelerate the development of this field.