Imagining…
Where Science Meets Creative Writing
Find a story within the topics above
How can we look at fossils and understand what creatures roamed the Earth millions of years ago?
How can we predict the behavior of materials deep within planetary interiors?
How can we reverse humanity’s impact on the global climate?
How can we predict habitats for life on other planets?
Doing impactful, innovative research requires training our brain to imagine the elusive unknown, even when bounded by scientific evidence. Now, more than ever in the history of human civilization, there is a pressing need to exercise our imagination muscles. Writing scientific fiction while accounting for the real science is a powerful way to do just that—to learn what is possible, what is probable, how we can change the future, and what our responsibility is to the future generation of our species.
Most Recent Stories
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Progress Without Morals
A scientist is trying to harness microbial properties to develop a fantastic tool. He believes he can; but should he?
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For Today’s Inspiration
- Lettuce Find Healthy Space Food! Citizen Scientists Study Space Salads
Lettuce Find Healthy Space Food! Citizen Scientists Study Space Salads Missions to the Moon and Mars pose nutritional challenges for astronauts. Now, a new paper on space-grown food iMissions to the Moon and Mars pose nutritional challenges for astronauts, but volunteers from NASA’s Open Science Data Repository Analysis Working Groups (OSDR-AWG) are working together to
- IC Stars
Data from NASA’s Chandra X-ray Observatory and NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope combine to reveal an otherworldly view of the star-forming region IC 348. In this image released on July 23, 2025, X-rays from Chandra are red, green, and blue, while infrared data from Webb are pink, orange, and purple. The wispy structures that dominate
- Volcanic Eruptions in One Hemisphere Linked to Floods in the Opposite One
Asymmetric volcanic plumes may shift equatorial weather patterns and increase tropical stream flow, according to new simulations.
- A Fiber-Optic Cable Eavesdrops on a Calving Glacier
A glass thread strung along the bottom of a fjord captured the entire process of calving, from the cracking of ice to the breakup of bergs.
- Vaccine given during pregnancy could protect babies from an invisible killer
Shots target group B streptococcus, a little-known microbe that can cause stillbirths and life-threatening disease in infants
- USDA funding delays under Trump compromise agricultural research
Sharp drop in grant awards leaves researchers frustrated
- In This Issue
Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, Volume 122, Issue 37, September 2025. <br/>
- In vivo Pirt-Marina voltage sensor imaging detects primary sensory neuron–specific voltage dynamics and neuronal plasticity changes
Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, Volume 122, Issue 37, September 2025. <br/>SignificanceThis is a significant contribution to the field of sensory neurobiology by characterizing a mouse line for voltage imaging in primary sensory neurons following nociceptive and pruriceptive stimuli. We generated a sensory neuron-specific …
- What drove the rise of civilizations? A decades-long quest points to warfare
Nature, Published online: 22 September 2025; doi:10.1038/d41586-025-03033-4An ambitious analysis of a vast trove of data from 800 societies around the world concludes that there’s safety in numbers.
- Trump links autism and Tylenol: is there any truth to it?
Nature, Published online: 22 September 2025; doi:10.1038/d41586-025-02876-1The US president repeatedly advised people, “Don’t take Tylenol,” but scientists say that strong evidence between the medication and autism is lacking.