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 NASA Engineering and Safety Center (NESC) conducted a technical assessment to evaluate alternatives to dichloromethane, traditionally used for bonding transparent polymeric materials. This effort was initiated in response to potential regulatory restrictions under the EPA Toxic Substances Control Act (TSCA), which could impact critical bonding processes used in spaceflight hardware and experimental systems. Download

  • Tsunamis from the Sky

    Not all tsunamis come from the seafloor, some are triggered by the atmosphere, driven by fast-moving storms and pressure waves, and can strike coasts with little warning.

  • A Mid-Ocean Ridge in the Norwegian Sea Pumps Out Hydrogen

    Vent fluids collected from the Knipovich Ridge contain unexpectedly high concentrations of hydrogen, potentially produced by the degradation of organic matter.

  • In This Issue

    Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, Volume 123, Issue 4, January 2026. <br/>

  • Cytoplasmic crowding acts as a porous medium reducing macromolecule diffusion

    Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, Volume 123, Issue 4, January 2026. <br/>SignificanceMolecular diffusion is a fundamental and energy-saving transport mechanism. As such, it is central to numerous functions in living cells such as cell growth, biochemical signaling, and gene synthesis. However, the intracellular space is …