Reliable battery operation in sub-zero environments is critical for polar exploration, military missions, and space applications. However, conventional lithium-ion batteries (LIBs) face inherent limitations at low temperatures by intrinsic hurdle of poor ionic mobility in liquid electrolytes. All-solid-state batteries (ASSBs), which replace liquid electrolytes with non-flammable and non-freezing solid electrolytes, are considered promising alternatives because these solid electrolytes provide high ionic conductivity at low temperatures, superior temperature stability, and exceptional safety. ASSBs still face practical limitations at extremely low temperatures due to degradation caused by interfacial side reactions and mechanical instabilities that increase resistance and polarization. Addressing these challenges is critical to realize the advantages of ASSBs and enable their practical deployment in low-temperature applications. This review provides an overview of historical developments, critical challenges, and recent progress in advancing the low-temperature performance of ASSBs. The key components of ASSBs, including solid electrolytes, cathodes, and anodes, are systematically investigated to develop strategies for improving ASSBs at low temperatures. By highlighting future perspectives, we emphasize both the potential and necessity of ASSBs to overcome the intrinsic limitations of LIBs and ensure reliable energy storage in harsh environments.

The Europlanet Science Congress (EPSC) 2026 will be held in hybrid format at the Amare arts venue in The Hague, Netherlands, and online, from 6–11 September 2026. Around 1200 planetary scientists from over 40 countries in Europe and around the world are expected to attend the conference.

Researchers at the Boyce Thompson Institute and Cornell University have developed AIMe (AI Molecule Explorer), a neuro-symbolic AI tool that predicts, organizes, and searches mass spectra for more than 100 million known small organic molecules—creating a searchable map of chemical space roughly a thousand times larger than existing experimental libraries. Applying AIMe to gut microbiome data, the team identified a previously unknown, ring-shaped polyamine compound also found in human fecal samples, and used the tool to annotate millions of unidentified spectra in a major public mass spectrometry database.

A series of studies sheds new light on the early stages of the evolution of the planet closest to the Sun. Using experimental petrology, the researchers are reconstructing in the laboratory the formation of Mercury’s core, the crystallisation of its magma ocean and the formation of its mantle.

Researchers at Osaka Metropolitan University have produced the first detailed map of molecular gas across Stephan’s Quintet, a nearby group of interacting galaxies where some regions form stars far less efficiently than expected. Their observations reveal that the effect of turbulence on star-forming gases may control whether stars are birthed or not.

How do animals perceive three-dimensional space, and how do they navigate within it? How does the brain translate sensory stimuli into specific behavior? Starting in October, Dr. Fabian Voigt will investigate these questions with a new research group at the Max Planck Institute for the Science of Light and the Max-Planck-Zentrum für Physik und Medizin. To visualize these connections in freely moving animals, the neuroscientist has received an ERC Starting Grant to develop a new generation of optical microscopes.

High pressure-temperature experiments using a large-volume multianvil apparatus show that subducted carbonate addition promotes Ca-Mg exchange with silicates and enhances Ca incorporation under Fe-rich conditions, significantly boosting davemaoite exsolution in carbonate-altered oceanic crust. This reaction concentrates davemaoite to 12–33 vol.% near 560 km depth, producing the 2–4% impedance contrast required to explain the seismic splitting of the 520-km mantle discontinuity. Consequently, deep carbon cycling plays a crucial role in actively reshaping mantle mineral equilibria.