If you ask ‘Why?’, you’re a philosopher, and you’re awesome | Aeon Essays
Diving into the ring of darkness beyond things easily answerable, asking ‘Why?’ questions is what make...
What’s an ancient Greek brick doing in a Sumerian city? An archeological investigation | Aeon Videos
A British Museum curator explains why making sense of archeological ruins is like finding a single...
The migrants missing in Mexico, and the mothers who won’t stop searching for them | Aeon Videos
‘We share and feel the same pain’: the mothers looking for their children who disappeared in...
We can still get out of the climate Hellocene and into the clear | Aeon Essays
Despite decades of inaction we can avert the climate Hellocene and restore the atmosphere to keep...
Why Jean-Jacques Rousseau and Adam Smith were divided on the virtues of vanity | Aeon Videos
Jean-Jacques Rousseau and Adam Smith agreed that vanity was all too human. But one saw it...
How moral resilience helps nurses work through ethical strife | Aeon Essays
Nurses experience deep suffering when they can’t act according to their moral compass. Our research shows...
There are no pure cultures - we have always been global | Aeon Essays
All of our religions, stories, languages and norms were muddled and mixed through mobility and exchange...
The tree frog die-off that sparked a global mystery – and revealed a dark truth | Aeon Videos
Returning to the cold case of the disappearing frogs of Costa Rica, a biologist reveals a...
Why prayer is a problem-solving practice that works | Aeon Essays
Praying is a cognitive practice full of problem-solving resources. You can learn from it even if...
In art, the sublime is a feedback loop, evolving with whatever’s next to threaten us | Aeon Videos
The history, development and force of the sublime in Western art shows how what we fear...
How the search for beauty drives scientific enquiry | Aeon Essays
We surveyed thousands of scientists in four countries and learned just how important beauty is to...
From Afghanistan to Virginia – the Muslims who fought in the American Civil War | Aeon Videos
The stories of two Muslim immigrants who fought for the Union show that the American Civil...
When women’s needlework becomes an act of subversive protest | Aeon Essays
Knitting and embroidery are laden with stereotypes of domestic femininity – and the subversive potential for...
History is always political, and contest over it is a good thing | Aeon Essays
In his work on republicanism as a living idea, J G A Pocock showed that contesting...
One family’s harrowing escape from postwar Vietnam, told in a poignant metaphor | Aeon Videos
The self-sacrifice of ants to save their colonies is an allegory and a euphemism in one...
How the novel became a laboratory for experimental physics | Aeon Essays
By testing the boundaries of reality, Spanish-language authors have created a sublime counterpart to experimental physics...
Visit the small Texas community that lives in the shadow of SpaceX launches | Aeon Videos
A portrait of the Texas coastline occupied by SpaceX reveals the footprints we leave on Earth...
Metamorphic rocks go on deep journeys we never can | Aeon Essays
Metamorphic rocks are our emissaries from the deep, travelling to alien realms and revealing the restless...
Our world has very different contours when a millimetre is blown up to a full screen | Aeon Videos
When you aim a powerful macroscopic camera at everyday items, the micro-world around us becomes only...
The rule of law and racial difference in the British Empire | Aeon Essays
The British Empire used a great democratic ideal to manufacture racial difference and rationalise colonial domination...
‘As real as it ever gets’: Dennett’s conception of the mind | Aeon Essays
Often metaphorical and allusive, the philosopher’s work will long be remembered for how it grappled with...
A frontline soldier’s moving account of the fabled ‘Christmas truce’ of 1914 | Aeon Videos
‘That’ll be a thing to remember’ – a soldier’s account of the ‘Christmas truce’ of 1914...
Dance was ubiquitous in ancient Rome. What was its meaning? | Aeon Essays
Religious ritual to appease the gods or free expression of human agency? For the ancient Romans,...
What a 1970 experiment reveals about the possibility and perils of ‘head transplants’ | Aeon Videos
‘Are you a mind with a body or a body with a mind?’ The legacy of...
The school that was a ray of light in apartheid South Africa | Aeon Essays
The progressive and remarkably innovative Woodmead School briefly flourished amid the viciousness of apartheid South Africa...
Replicating Shakespearean-era printing brings its own dramas and comedy | Aeon Videos
Reviving the nearly lost printing processes of Shakespeare’s day is a labour of love and an...
Scientists are no longer sure the Universe began with a bang | Aeon Essays
It was thought that science could tell us about the origins of the Universe. Today that...
When AI summaries replace hyperlinks, thought itself is flattened | Aeon Essays
In creating anonymous summaries, AI flattens out all the fascinating architecture of thought that makes the...
The wild tale of a young animal keeper, an angry tiger and a torn circle net | Aeon Videos
‘Tiny problems become big ones when tigers are involved’: the day a young (and reckless) animal...
What San Francisco carpooling tells us about anarchism | Aeon Essays
How San Francisco’s free rides system can help us understand anarchist theory and the work of...
Why single Chinese women are freezing their eggs in California | Aeon Videos
China does not allow assisted reproduction for unmarried women. So now they travel to the US...
How to live on the edge of a disappearing coastline | Aeon Essays
In a changing climate, the instinct is to save everything you can. But maybe letting go...
Can you see music in this painting? How synaesthesia fuelled Kandinsky’s art | Aeon Videos
When he saw colours, Kandinsky heard music. Exploring the role of synaesthesia in his increasing move...
Julian S Huxley, the man who put eugenics into UNESCO | Aeon Essays
Why did Julian S Huxley, first director of the UN agency, think eugenics held the key...
How a Cold War underground university smuggled in Western ideas | Aeon Essays
During the Cold War, Oxford philosophers worked together to aid dissidents behind the Iron Curtain. I...
Petty squabbles and bloody battles – the life of an ancient Roman soldier | Aeon Videos
The ancient letters of a Roman soldier reveal the hazards and routines of army life, from...
Why identity, morality and faith splinter in the multiverse | Aeon Essays
If it’s true that we live in a vast multiverse, then our understanding of identity, morality...
The police camp where tween girls enter a sisterhood of law and order | Aeon Videos
At a week-long police boot camp, a shy girl from Copenhagen learns to handcuff suspects, respond...
Identity is painfully contingent for the culturally bereaved | Aeon Essays
As a child, I was torn from a culture that I never knew. It is a...
The remarkable innovations inspired by our need to know the night sky | Aeon Videos
A brief, animated history of astronomy shows how a sophisticated understanding of the night sky made...
Don’t cancel Aristotle – we need his ideas to hone ours | Aeon Essays
The endless battle over his legacy testifies to his great authority – and the power of...
How Thomas Merton both loved and kept his distance from the world | Aeon Essays
On his final journey through Asia, Thomas Merton found some peace in the dialectic between refusing...
Why it takes more than a lifetime to truly understand a single meadow | Aeon Videos
The three generations of scientists dedicated to knowing a small sliver of Earth, one flower and...
What is behind the explosion in talk about decolonisation? | Aeon Essays
There’s more talk of decolonisation than ever, while true independence for former colonies has faded from...
Groundbreaking visualisations show how the world of the nucleus gives rise to our own | Aeon Videos
Take a closer look at the atomic nucleus, from the ancient Greek idea of the atom...
‘She is living on in many hearts’ – Otto Frank on the legacy of his daughter’s diary | Aeon Videos
In this 1976 interview, Otto Frank reflects on his decision to give his daughter Anne’s words...
How animals learned to hibernate and why we can’t do it (yet) | Aeon Essays
Hibernation allows many animals to time-travel from difficult times to plenty. Could humans learn how to...
Why I want my deaf daughter to have the best of both worlds | Aeon Essays
As the hearing parent of a deaf baby, I’m confronted with an agonising decision: should I...
Why Diego Velázquez needed a lifetime to paint his enigmatic masterpiece | Aeon Videos
Step into the world of the enigmatic ‘Las Meninas’ – Diego Velázquez’s masterpiece of royal (and...
On seeing the laws of nature as a recipe or a news report | Aeon Essays
Physicists and philosophers today have formulated three opposing models that explain how laws work. Which is...
