Imagining Science

Imagining…

Where Science Meets Creative Writing

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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

For Today’s Inspiration

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    The waxing gibbous moon is nestled in the darkness of space in this June 26, 2026, image from the International Space Station. The space station was 264 miles above the Indian Ocean southeast of Madagascar at the time. The waxing gibbous phase comes before the full moon phase. During this time, the Moon appears brighter

  • Where Venezuela’s Earthquakes Shifted the Ground

    Radar data from the NISAR satellite show that La Guaira and nearby areas experienced significant ground displacement from the June 2026 temblors.

  • A Climate Skeptic Will Oversee the National Climate Assessment

    Since 2000, the U.S. Global Change Research Program (USGCRP) has been responsible for publishing the National Climate Assessment, a congressionally mandated evaluation of the effects of climate change on the United States released every four years. Now, the program—and the assessment—is headed by Matthew Wielicki, an outspoken climate change denier, self-described “Earth science professor-in-exile,” and former University of Alabama geochemist, according to POLITICO. 

  • Calculating the Costs of Wetland Loss

    Wetlands protect communities and ecosystems from flooding. A new study quantifies their financial importance.

    • In This Issue

      Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, Volume 123, Issue 27, July 2026. <br/>

    • Improving cell-free metabolism through direct integration of artificial respiratory chains

      Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, Volume 123, Issue 27, July 2026. <br/>SignificanceA key goal of bottom–up synthetic biology is to construct cell-free systems with life-like, autonomous, and self-sustaining capabilities. Achieving this requires an efficient and controllable energy supply. In this work, we integrate a custom-…