Imagining Science

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.

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    From a geothermal hotspot to the one-time “Lighthouse of the Pacific,” the heat is on beneath the volcanic landscape of western El Salvador.

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  • Scientist as Subject | Science

    HomeScienceVol. 392, No. 6797Scientist as SubjectBack To Vol. 392, No. 6797 Full accessBooks et al.Podcast Share on Scientist as SubjectScience30 Apr 2026Vol 392, Issue 6797p. 472DOI: 10.1126/science.aeh7540 PREVIOUS ARTICLEAnticipating the future in an algorithmic agePreviousNEXT ARTICLESupport besieged Iranian scientistsNext NotificationsBookmark ContentsInformation & AuthorsMetrics & Citation…

  • In This Issue

    Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, Volume 123, Issue 17, April 2026. <br/>

  • Design principles of the cytotoxic CD8+ T cell response

    Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, Volume 123, Issue 17, April 2026. <br/>SignificanceAdaptive cytotoxic T cells must eliminate pathogens while sparing healthy tissue, yet how response speed and magnitude arise from cellular decision rules remains unclear. Here, we formalize T cell immunity as a feedback-controlled program in …