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
- Ice Moves Out of Aniak
Spring melt along Alaska’s Kuskokwim River caused ice jams and flooding.
- NASA-Supported Space Tech Advances Earthly Construction
An innovative 3D printing process that advanced NASA’s approach to outfitting a lunar habitat is making buildings on Earth beautiful, efficient, and strong. Instead of building structures layer by layer, Branch Technology Inc. of Chattanooga, Tennessee, has developed a process the company calls Freeform 3D Printing, which creates shapes with lightweight lattice structures that can be filled or covered. The company uses the technique to manufacture
- Landslides are New Zealand’s most expensive natural hazard, and the costs are rising quickly
New evidence from the Natural Hazards Commission – Toka Tū Ake (NHC) shows that landslides are now New Zealand’s most costly natural hazard. New Zealand is a country that is prone to a range of natural hazards. Located on a series of major fault systems, earthquakes cause high levels of loss. The country is also
- Astronomers Find 10,000 Potential New Exoplanets
That’s more than were detected in the entirety of NASA’s Kepler mission and its follow-on K2 and more than double the existing planet candidates from TESS that await confirmation.
- In the remote Amazon, locals are saving a giant fish—and helping their villages
Project has brought income and electricity while protecting wide swaths of tropical forest
- Magic mushroom compound shows promise against cocaine addiction
Small study that prioritized Black and low-income participants yields “remarkable” results
- In This Issue
Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, Volume 123, Issue 19, May 2026. <br/>
- Evaluating the statistical realism of LLM-generated social science data
Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, Volume 123, Issue 19, May 2026. <br/>SignificanceLarge language models (LLMs) enable the generation of data that could potentially be analyzed for social research. While the need for assessing the validity of such AI-generated data is widely recognized, we do not yet have a coherent …
- Old antibiotics are being revived to fight new threats
Nature, Published online: 13 May 2026; doi:10.1038/d41586-026-01379-xThe last antimicrobial peptide was developed decades ago. Now, drug-resistant bacteria are forcing scientists to take a fresh look at this class of antibiotic.
- Protective maternal gut instincts
Nature, Published online: 13 May 2026; doi:10.1038/d41586-026-01322-0Pregnancy poses many challenges, including protecting against infection and increased nutritional demands. Pregnancy-associated gut changes offer some help.