Songs of conquest
From Tallis’s choral beauty to the unnerving bells of Mexico City, early modern power created a whole new world of sound
Aeon is not-for-profit and free for everyone
Make a donationGet Aeon straight to your inbox
Join our newsletterPopular this month
essay
Animals and humans
Promethean beasts
Far from being hardwired to flee fire, some animals use it to their own ends, helping us understand our own pyrocognition
Ivo Jacobs
essay
Sleep and dreams
Inside your dreamscape
Dream-hacking techniques can help us create, heal and have fun. They could also become tools of commercial manipulation
Adam Haar Horowitz, Robert Stickgold & Antonio Zadra
essay
Medicine
The body is not a machine
Modern biomedicine sees the body as a closed mechanistic system. But illness shows us to be permeable, ecological beings
Nitin K Ahuja
essay
Economic history
How we became weekly
The week is the most artificial and recent of our time counts yet it’s impossible to imagine our shared lives without it
David Henkin
essay
History of science
Calculate but don’t shut up
The cliché has it that the Copenhagen interpretation demands adherence without deep enquiry. That does physics a disservice
Jim Baggott
video
Biology
The astonishing resonances between patterns in nature, microscopic and cosmic
5 minutes
essay
Nations and empires
East of Zionism
In 1900 my grandfather’s generation imagined a modernising Arab world, multireligious and progressive. What happened?
Ussama Makdisi
video
Neurodiversity
Workplace diversity isn’t just about equality – it’s a competitive advantage
4 minutes
video
Beauty and aesthetics
Not just a meme, but a masterpiece – why the Mona Lisa earns its exalted place in art
33 minutes
essay
Philosophy of science
The beautiful experiment
Science has become extraordinarily technocratic and complex. Is the simple and decisive experiment still a worthy ideal?
Milena Ivanova
video
Religion
How the Hindu myth of Annapurna, goddess of food, connects sustenance with spirituality
5 minutes
essay
Economic history
How we became weekly
The week is the most artificial and recent of our time counts yet it’s impossible to imagine our shared lives without it
David Henkin
video
Computing and artificial intelligence
Who, exactly, authored this AI-generated spin on Alfred Hitchcock’s Vertigo?
5 minutes
essay
Gender
Are men animals?
Diagnosing men as violent and oversexed beasts is tempting but it’s a regressive idea built on dubious analogies
Matthew Gutmann
essay
Architecture
Being in a building
One of the great buildings of the Renaissance reminds us that buildings are made to be explored, smelled and even tasted
David Karmon
video
Gender and identity
LGBTQ+ retirees celebrate their hard-earned self-acceptance at a belated prom night
14 minutes
essay
Animals and humans
Promethean beasts
Far from being hardwired to flee fire, some animals use it to their own ends, helping us understand our own pyrocognition
Ivo Jacobs
video
Biology
Peering into the eerie world of plankton reveals a variety of vital creatures
3 minutes
essay
Psychiatry and psychotherapy
The humane asylum
As a society we are failing people with severe, persistent mental illness. It’s time to reimagine institutional care
Madeleine Ritts & Daniel Rosenbaum
video
Biography and memoir
Meet the Liverbirds! The bittersweet tale of Liverpool’s all-female answer to the Beatles
16 minutes
essay
Gender and identity
George Sand’s boots
How the rebellious novelist left behind her provincial self to learn about life, charging around Paris dressed as a man
Belinda Jack
essay
Sleep and dreams
Inside your dreamscape
Dream-hacking techniques can help us create, heal and have fun. They could also become tools of commercial manipulation
Adam Haar Horowitz, Robert Stickgold & Antonio Zadra
video
Mental health
When crushes become crushing – how to know if you’re in a ‘limerent episode’
4 minutes
essay
Palaeontology
This riotous life
There’s no rhythm to mass extinctions, no pattern to evolutionary recovery. Life bursts forth, in cacophonous adaptation
Riley Black
video
Music
Take in the sounds of silence via this unique performance of John Cage’s infamous piece
5 minutes
essay
Bioethics
We are all frail
We should be able to acknowledge that disabilities can cause pain and suffering without disabled people feeling dehumanised
Tom Shakespeare
video
Travel
‘My people!’ A Trinidadian’s love letter to his island, just before its 1962 independence
17 minutes
essay
Future of technology
Learn from machine learning
The world is a black box full of extreme specificity: it might be predictable but that doesn’t mean it is understandable
David Weinberger