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
- APOD: 2026 November 11 – NGC 4449: Small Galaxy, Big Impact
APOD Science APOD APOD: 2026 November 11 – NGC… Today’s APOD Archive Submissions Index Search Calendar RSS Education About Discuss APOD Astronomy Picture of the Day Discover the cosmos! Each day a different image or photograph of our fascinating universe is featured, along with a brief explanation written by a professional astronomer. NGC 4449:
- Water Surges Into Navajo Reservoir
Rounds of heavy rain in the U.S. Southwest flooded rivers and rapidly raised New Mexico’s second-largest reservoir.
- Airborne Imaging Explores a Mosaic of Thawing Permafrost
One unexpected finding is that large, interconnected areas of thaw underlie many water bodies.
- 高山上的云，舞姿别样
由于气候变化，青藏高原和安第斯山脉的云层比其他地区的云更冷、更高。这可能会影响当地的水文循环和辐射过程。
- 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. …
- Author or just ‘acknowledged’? How women are not gaining full credit for research
Nature, Published online: 11 November 2026; doi:10.1038/d41586-026-03448-7An analysis of who is more likely to get authorship than acknowledgement highlights the influence of a researcher’s gender and status.
- Retractions of old papers are on the rise: when should bad science be culled?
Nature, Published online: 11 November 2026; doi:10.1038/d41586-026-03624-9Decades-old papers are increasingly being pulled from the literature, bringing a host of challenges.