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
-
-
Progress Without Morals
A scientist is trying to harness microbial properties to develop a fantastic tool. He believes he can; but should he?
-
For Today’s Inspiration
- Artemis Mission Patches
A jacket decorated with Artemis I and II mission patches, along with other NASA patches hangs on the back of a chair on Thursday, Aug. 6, 2026, inside the Rocco A. Petrone Launch Control Center at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida during a terminal countdown simulation for the Artemis III mission. NASA’s Exploration Ground
- NASA Selects University Teams to Help Advance Aviation Research
NASA has selected four university teams to help the agency transform the future of aviation through projects ranging from high-supersonic propulsion systems to low-noise routes for small aircraft flying through cities. The agency made awards through its University Leadership Initiative, which offers student teams the opportunity to contribute to real-world flight research that advances NASA’s goals in aeronautics.
- It Takes Three to Model Methane Right
By combining conventional process-based and atmospheric inversion modeling with machine learning, scientists home in on a more realistic methane model.
- Tectonics and Deglaciation Govern Eastern-Southern Alps at Slow Rates
Transnational, multiproxy, and interdisciplinary datasets locate seismic hazard and show that slow-rate tectonic and deglaciation deformation overrate mantle processes in the Southern-Eastern Alps.
- In This Issue
Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, Volume 123, Issue 33, August 2026. <br/>
- Beyond “non-significant” results: Why and how to test for practical equivalence
Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, Volume 123, Issue 33, August 2026. <br/>Reporting comparisons withP≥ 0.05 as showing “no effect” or “no difference” remains one of the most widespread and problematic misinterpretations in the scientific literature. A statistically nonsignificant result shows only that the data do not provide …
- Investors’ sneak peak: can this AI tool spot the science that will lead to patents?
Nature, Published online: 20 August 2026; doi:10.1038/d41586-026-02549-7The approach could speed up investment decisions, but researchers say it has flaws.
- Staggering 90% of biomedical papers now show signs of AI help
Nature, Published online: 20 August 2026; doi:10.1038/d41586-026-02551-zThe figure, which is much higher than previous estimates of Large Language Model use, is for papers published in December and archived in PubMed