Menu
Aeon
DonateNewsletterSIGN IN
A crocodile underwater with mouth open wide showing teeth in a cloudy green environment.

Beyond food and people

Nietzsche shows us how to embrace our connection with nature – without denying its essential conflict, strife and suffering

Abstract digital art of a web-like cosmic structure with purple and orange filament patterns, resembling a universe simulation.

essay

Cosmology

Rivers of galaxies

What are the largest shapes in the Universe? The answer might be found in the most unassuming places here on Earth

Mark Neyrinck

Photo of two women hugging at an indoor event, one holding a piece of paper

video

Life stages

Grief, healing and laughter coexist at a unique retreat for widows and widowers

15 minutes

A person in a hospital gown sitting on a bed in a bright patient room, large window and privacy curtain visible.

essay

Human rights and justice

Knowledge and justice

Any legal system that fails to compensate people for epistemic harm is unjust. Their damage must be named and remedied

Mitch Woolery

Illustration of three people, one with wide eyes and mouth open, another holding their head, third timing with a pocket watch.

video

Medicine

Drinking wine from toxic cups was the 17th century’s own dubious ‘detox’ treatment

11 minutes

Painting of a vast landscape featuring rocky hills, a woman with a child and distant snow-capped mountains under a cloudy sky.

video

Nature and landscape

After independence, Mexico was in search of identity. These paintings offered a blueprint

15 minutes

Photo of two polar bears exploring a decaying wooden building, one looks out a window, the other stands on the porch steps.

essay

Animals and humans

Humanlike?

Interpreting the emotional lives of animals requires a subtler and more nuanced understanding of anthropomorphism

Mike Dacey

Photo of an ocean sunset seen through a round window with a warm sepia tone across the sky and water.

essay

Language and linguistics

The grammar of a god-ocean

To truly explore alien languages, linguists must open themselves to the maximum conceivable degree of cosmic otherness

Eli K P William

Photo of a woman in a red coat gazing out a foggy window with a contemplative expression.

video

Progress and modernity

Moving from Tibet to Beijing, Drolma reconciles big dreams with harsh realities

31 minutes

A man in a blue shirt playing a saxophone against a dark background.

essay

Consciousness and altered states

Kind of confusing

Is consciousness like jazz, something hard to pin down? Or is it more like the biology of dolphins, odd but natural?

Tim Bayne

Illustration of an ancient Greek temple with the golden ratio spiral overlay, featuring bright colours and clear skies.

video

Mathematics

Spiral into the ‘golden ratio’ – and separate the myths from the maths

4 minutes

A hospital room with a patient in a gown and headscarf speaking to a doctor, while a man stands nearby taking notes.

essay

Illness and disease

The power of the ‘C’ word

Saying the word ‘cancer’ changes a person’s life and can lead to overtreatment and fear. Is the word too hot to use at all?

Benjamin Chin-Yee

Vintage photo of people erecting tall structures in a tropical setting with palm trees and a thatched building.

video

Art

A young Rockefeller collects art on a fateful journey to New Guinea

7 minutes

Black and white photo of Adolf Hitler greeting two clergymen surrounded by a crowd in front of a Gothic building.

essay

Religion

An unholy alliance

In the 1930s, the rise of Nazism brought centuries of animosity between Europe’s Catholics and Protestants to an end. Why?

Udi Greenberg

Yellow slime mould on textured tree bark, showcasing intricate branching patterns.

essay

Biology

Memories without brains

Certain slime moulds can make decisions, solve mazes and remember things. What can we learn from the blob?

Matthew Sims

3D rendering of an ancient water clock with zodiac signs and blue water flowing into a container on a wooden surface.

video

Engineering

How water-based clocks revolutionised the way we measure time

10 minutes

An elderly person lying in a hospital bed in a bright room with a walker and a window nearby.

essay

Death

Freedom over death

Death is a certainty. But choosing how and when we depart is a modest opportunity for freedom – and dignity

Michael Cholbi

Photo of a man lying on a bed with white sheets, looking peaceful against a blue background.

video

Consciousness and altered states

What do screens depicting serene natural scenes mean to those living in lock-up?

12 minutes

Painting of blind men with sticks leading one another, one has fallen, landscape and church in the background.

essay

Thinkers and theories

The French liar

René Descartes, the founder of modern philosophy, was furiously condemned by his contemporaries. Why did they fear him?

Sandrine Parageau

Black and white photo of a woman sitting in front of a bookshelf wearing a light blouse and speaking.

video

Anthropology

Margaret Mead explains why the family was entering a brave new world in this 1959 film

29 minutes

A large white cathedral with golden domes near a river, surrounded by trees with autumn colours.

essay

Architecture

The replica and the original

Architectural copies of lost structures require reckoning with history and heritage. At what cost is the past rebuilt?

Elizabeth Kostina

Illustration of a crab using a laptop, captioned “Homo-crustaceous digitalis” on a textured background.

essay

The future

Homo crustaceous

‘Everything becomes crab’ is more than an absurd meme. The crab is a deep symbol of our devil’s bargain with technology

Michael Garfield

Aerial photo of workers harvesting oranges, loading crates onto a tractor in an orchard.

video

Demography and migration

In California’s farmlands, immigrant workers share their stories of toil and hope

17 minutes

Photo of a rustic stone house with a shaded garden path lined with lush greenery and flowering plants under a clear blue sky.

essay

History of ideas

From scattered traces

How the ideas circulating among one noblewoman’s coterie in 16th-century Dubrovnik anticipated modern feminist thought

Luka Boršić

Blurry photo of a townscape with unfocused colourful lights strung across buildings in the evening.

video

Ageing and death

Memories of friends and neighbours light the streets of a seaside village in England

11 minutes