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 to Host Artemis II Crew Postflight News Conference
Fresh off their return to Earth, the Artemis II astronauts will hold a news conference at 2:30 p.m. EDT Thursday, April 16, at NASA’s Johnson Space Center in Houston to discuss their historic mission around the Moon. NASA astronauts Reid Wiseman, Victor Glover, and Christina Koch, along with CSA (Canadian Space Agency) Jeremy Hansen, will
- Artemis II Astronauts Aboard USS John P. Murtha
The first astronauts to travel to the Moon in more than half a century are back on Earth after a record-setting mission aboard NASA’s Artemis II test flight. NASA astronauts Reid Wiseman (commander), Christina Koch (mission specialist), Victor Glover (pilot), and CSA astronaut Jeremy Hansen (mission specialist) pose for a group photo in the well
- Constructive Debate on the Rise of the Tibetan Plateau
A constructive debate on Himalayan tectonics shows how respectful scientific dialogue helps test competing ideas about how Earth’s highest plateau formed.
- Fixing Baltimore’s Unequal Weather Data Coverage
A new partnership between researchers and community members created a comprehensive network of weather stations across underserved areas of the city.
- Roaming gangs of tumor cells help spread cancer. Can drugs break them up?
To impede metastasis, researchers seek to develop novel treatments that disrupt tumor cell clusters
- The delicate dance of Earth and life | Science
We owe much of our existence to our planet’s rare features
- In This Issue
Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, Volume 123, Issue 14, April 2026. <br/>
- Satisfaction with democracy predicts democratic behaviors
Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, Volume 123, Issue 14, April 2026. <br/>SignificanceTo diagnose a democracy’s health, it is common to survey citizens about their satisfaction with democracy. Whether attitudes thus measured are good predictors of objective democratic health, however, remains an important open question. We …
- Huge analysis of 320,000 careers suggests that productive researchers stay that way
Nature, Published online: 13 April 2026; doi:10.1038/d41586-026-00744-0Early publishing success, team size and international collaborations are some of the best predictors of future publication rates.
- How I harness research to inform humanitarian relief efforts
Nature, Published online: 13 April 2026; doi:10.1038/d41586-026-00197-5As a social scientist at Médecins Sans Frontières, Beverley Stringer researches the many non-medical factors that affect health during emergencies.