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
- Expanding the Human Factors Toolbox: An Approach to Balancing Crew and Mission Design Parameters
This article is from the 2025 Technical Update. The human factors TDT looks for and creates opportunities to influence design to leverage human strengths and to protect people and missions. The human factors team has experts with knowledge of human performance in all aspects of NASA missions as well as from other safety-critical industries. The
- Webinar 3/25: NASA CSDA Vendor Focus – Satellogic
Join us March 25 at 2:00 p.m. EDT to learn more about the data offered by CSDA program vendor Satellogic.
- How Radar Reveals the Hidden Fabric of Ice Sheets
A new review describes how measuring the polarization of radar waves in ice reveals glacier crystal structure, with implications for understanding past and future ice flow and sea-level rise.
- The Fate of the Greenland Ice Sheet: Deep Learning from SkySat Images
Surface meltwater ponding and drainage in the Greenland Ice Sheet is analyzed at high spatial and temporal resolution through SkySat imagery and deep learning.
- Can a wealthy family change the course of a deadly brain disease?
Inspired by the loss of their mother, they have poured millions into studying a key protein behind frontotemporal dementia. But all has not gone according to plan
- Structural modeling reveals phage proteins that manipulate bacterial immune signaling | Science
Immune systems in animals, plants, and bacteria often rely on intracellular nucleotide signaling, which viruses can block by sequestering or degrading these signals. We identified structural and biophysical traits shared by diverse viral antidefense …
- In This Issue
Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, Volume 123, Issue 9, March 2026. <br/>
- Ecological inheritance facilitates the coexistence of environmental helpers and free riders
Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, Volume 123, Issue 9, March 2026. <br/>SignificanceA central question in evolutionary biology is why variation in traits that affect fitness persists within populations. Here we consider the role of ecological inheritance, whereby organisms modify their local environment and pass these …
- Live parrots were carried across the Andes before the Incas’ rise
Nature, Published online: 10 March 2026; doi:10.1038/d41586-026-00765-9Ancient DNA and other clues from feathers found in modern Peru hint that the ancient Ychsma culture imported birds from the distant Amazon.
- Keep calm and be transparent: advice from scientists who retracted their papers
Nature, Published online: 10 March 2026; doi:10.1038/d41586-026-00763-xRetractions correct the scientific record, but they have stigma attached to them. Some in the research community want that to change.