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Science

Essays and videos exploring physics, evolution, cosmology and other frontiers in science
Gecko grip | Aeon
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video

Biology

The key to geckos’ unrivalled climbing skills isn’t sticky feet. It’s subatomic

4 minutes

Deep warming | Aeon
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essay

Earth science and climate

Deep warming

Even if we ‘solve’ global warming, we face an older, slower problem. Waste heat could radically alter Earth’s future

Mark Buchanan

Green Bank pastoral | Aeon
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video

Technology and the self

Greetings from Green Bank – the small town where modern technology is banned

10 minutes

Ingenious librarians | Aeon
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essay

History of technology

Ingenious librarians

A group of 1970s campus librarians foresaw our world of distributed knowledge and research, and designed search tools for it

Monica Westin

The science of cuteness | Aeon
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video

Human evolution

Far from frivolous, cuteness is a powerful – and still mysterious – force of nature

6 minutes

Time is an object | Aeon
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essay

Physics

Time is an object

Not a backdrop, an illusion or an emergent phenomenon, time has a physical size that can be measured in laboratories

Sara Walker & Lee Cronin

Water worlds | Aeon
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video

Space exploration

In the search for life, might alien ocean worlds be a better bet than Earth-like planets?

5 minutes

Our ark | Aeon
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video

Thinkers and theories

Is simulation theory a way to shirk responsibility for the world we’ve created?

13 minutes

WoodSwimmer | Aeon
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video

Biology

A dazzling slice-by-slice exploration of wood exposes hidden patterns and hues

2 minutes

The war on cancer | Aeon
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essay

Illness and disease

The war on cancer

Is it time to abandon the century-old idea that cancer is best met with a ‘fight’ from patients and their doctors alike?

Elaine Schattner

How to design architecture for wildlife | Aeon
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video

Architecture

Modern architecture should embrace – not ignore or repel – the nonhuman world

8 minutes

All is One | Aeon
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essay

Quantum theory

All is One

The ancient philosophy of monism and the physics of quantum entanglement agree: all that exists is one unified whole

Heinrich Päs

Three ways to think about free will | Aeon
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video

Philosophy of mind

We may never settle the ‘free will’ debate, but tapping into it is still worthwhile

32 minutes

Time travel in Britain’s lost rainforests | Aeon
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video

Ecology and environmental sciences

In an ancient English rainforest, John creates charcoal and cultivates growth

12 minutes

Five graphs that changed the world | Aeon
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video

Information and communication

Mapping data visualisation’s meteoric rise from Victorian London to today

6 minutes

Octopus time | Aeon
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essay

Biology

Octopus time

We humans are forward-facing, gravity-bound plodders. Can the liquid motion of the octopus radicalise our ideas about time?

David Borkenhagen

Patterns of the lifeworld | Aeon
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essay

Beauty and aesthetics

Patterns of the lifeworld

Machine learning theory is shedding new light on how to think about the mysterious and ineffable nature of art

Peli Grietzer

Animal, vegetable, mineral | Aeon
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essay

Consciousness and altered states

Animal, vegetable, mineral

Cruel and unscientific, the ‘vegetative state’ diagnosis stems from a hierarchical and bigoted view of all living things

Ben Platts-Mills

How Hubble images are made | Aeon
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video

Space exploration

What are you really seeing when you see magnificent images of space?

5 minutes

Machina mundi | Aeon
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essay

History of science

Machina mundi

How medieval thinkers foreshadowed modern physics in investigating the character of machines, devices and forces

Henrik Lagerlund & Sylvain Roudaut

How like the kiwi we are | Aeon
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essay

Human evolution

How like the kiwi we are

To understand helpless human babies, our big brains and oddly involved dads, look to the evolution of birds not mammals

Antone Martinho-Truswell

Memories within myth | Aeon
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essay

Anthropology

Memories within myth

The stories of oral societies, passed from generation to generation, are more than they seem. They are scientific records

Patrick Nunn

Aristotle on making babies | Aeon
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essay

History of ideas

Aristotle on making babies

He was the first great observer of nature. But his theory of human reproduction was deeply sexist – and enduring

Emily Thomas

Carl Sagan on Eratosthenes | Aeon
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video

History of science

How an ancient polymath first calculated Earth’s size, as told by Carl Sagan

7 minutes