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.

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For Today’s Inspiration

  • NASA Scientists Show How Gravitational Waves Can Reveal New Worlds

    The LISA (Laser Interferometer Space Antenna) observatory, now in development, will detect gravitational waves, the tiny ripples in space-time caused by orbiting masses. Now two studies led by NASA astrophysicists show in new detail how LISA could reveal a new and unique population of exoplanets — worlds beyond our solar system — throughout our galaxy. 

  • CHAPEA Crew Leaves a Mark

    The Crew Health and Performance Exploration Analog (CHAPEA) Mission 2 crew arranged photos around a boot print in the simulated Martian sand outside their habitat on Aug. 31, 2026. The crew recently exited their habitat on Saturday, Oct. 31, after 378 days of isolation in a facility at the agency’s Johnson Space Center in Houston. Health

    • In This Issue

      Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, Volume 123, Issue 44, November 2026. <br/>

    • Origami state machine with time-varying magnetic fields

      Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, Volume 123, Issue 44, November 2026. <br/>SignificanceMultistable mechanical systems can encode information and functionality through transitions between discrete states. A key challenge consists of reliably programming such systems to a target state without prior knowledge of the current state. …