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
- NASA’s Roman Mission Preps to Unveil New Populations of Faraway Worlds
NASA’s Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope is poised to make a major leap in the hunt for worlds outside our solar system, known as exoplanets. Scientists expect the mission to reveal around 100,000 worlds — a staggering leap compared to the nearly 6,300 found so far thanks to NASA missions working in tandem with other
- How NASA Uses Light to Detect Waste From Mines
Tens of thousands of abandoned mines threaten waterways across the American West, but identifying which sites urgently need cleanup is slow and expensive. Now, NASA’s EMIT instrument can analyze the unique light signatures of mine waste from space to help focus remediation efforts where they’re needed most.
- The Governance Gap Threatening Long-Term Ecological Archives
To save multigenerational science from administrative indifference, we must mandate stewardship continuity before closing physical facilities.
- From Volcanic Vents to Safer Skies
Improved estimates of Eruption Source Parameters can sharpen forecasts of volcanic plume rise and ash dispersal, supporting aviation safety and hazard response.
- Ancient wars between microbes gave us key immune defenses
A better understanding of battles between bacteria and viruses could inspire new medicines
- A student takes on Stanford (and the world) | Science
Theo Baker spills Silicon Valley secrets and revisits his efforts to expose a shocking breach of research integrity
- In This Issue
Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, Volume 123, Issue 21, May 2026. <br/>
- Indoor thermoregulatory homeostasis using hydrodynamic instability
Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, Volume 123, Issue 21, May 2026. <br/>SignificanceIndoor temperature management underpins the sustainability of nearly every global sector, from agriculture to power generation and residential housing. However, optimal temperature management remains elusive due to an unresolved tradeoff: …
- Share the highs and lows of your career in science: take Nature’s global survey
Nature, Published online: 28 May 2026; doi:10.1038/d41586-026-01589-3Science and society are undergoing rapid change. Nature wants to know how this is affecting careers, workplace culture and salaries.
- Human blood stem cells remember previous inflammation
Nature, Published online: 27 May 2026; doi:10.1038/d41586-026-01567-9Inflammatory stress is shown to reprogram a subset of human haematopoietic stem cells (HSCs). These inflammatory memory (HSC-iM) cells have reduced differentiation and pass on inflammation-related gene programs to their immune-cell progeny. HSC-iM cells accumulate with age, and cancer-associated mutations affect HSC-iM cells more than they do other HSCs in clonal blood disorders.