Carnegie Science Day

Every year on January 29, we come together to celebrate the moment that set more than a century of world-transforming discovery in motion.

On January 29, 1902, Andrew Carnegie convened Carnegie Science’s first Board of Trustees.

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Did you know? Carnegie Science was the scientific home to visionary scientists like:

Glow worms in the Okupata
HBD Carnegie Science - Carnegie Science Day 2025

Happy Birthday, Carnegie Science!

On this second annual Carnegie Science Day, we celebrate how fundamental science connects ideas across scales—from the origins of the universe to the forces that shape life itself.

Explore below to see how our scientists are advancing discovery across four interconnected frontiers. Together, these stories reflect a single idea: discovery is most powerful when we follow curiosity across boundaries.

A Blueprint for Discovery
Artist's conception of a a large gas giant planet orbiting a small red dwarf star called TOI-5205. Image by Katherine Cain, courtesy of the Carnegie Institution for Science.

Star Stuff to Planets


Astronomer Shreyas Vissapragada explains how new observational techniques are helping scientists search for biosignatures in distant planetary systems.

 

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Planets to Life

Astrobiologist Andrew Steele shares how these methods—and others—are being used to search for signs of ancient life on Mars.

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soil-microbes-g7785d995d_1280.jpg

Life on Earth

Biologist Yixian Zheng tackles a deceptively simple question: who runs the world? (Spoiler: it’s microbes.)

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Countdown to 125 Years of Discovery

Carnegie Science Day also marks the official start of our Countdown to 125!

As we approach our 125th anniversary next January, our staff have identified 125 objects, instruments, images, and specimens that define Carnegie Science’s history and influence. These artifacts—spanning astronomy, Earth science, biology, and beyond—tell the story of how curiosity-driven research has shaped modern science.

Follow us on social media as we begin unveiling these objects throughout the coming year and beyond.

The first meeting of the board of trustees, January 29, 1902
From the very first day

We begin #CarnegieScience125 today with a photograph from that first Trustee meeting—where Andrew Carnegie issued a charge that still guides us:

“Your work now begins, your aims are high, you seek to expand known forces, to discover and utilize unknown forces for the benefit of man. Than this there can scarcely be a greater work.”