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Science

Essays and videos exploring physics, evolution, cosmology and other frontiers in science
The panspermia theory | Aeon
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video

Biology

The idea that life on Earth originated elsewhere is not as far out as it seems

6 minutes

The Rift | Aeon
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essay

Deep time

The Rift

Splitting the African continent, it is the only place where our human story can be read continuously from the very start

Tristan McConnell

Why did consciousness evolve? | Aeon
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video

Evolution

Why making if-then connections might be the key to consciousness

5 minutes

Telescopes on the Moon | Aeon
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essay

Space exploration

Telescopes on the Moon

Our future in space relies on settling the Moon and using it as a base to probe the deepest questions in the cosmos

Joseph Silk

Mutual entrapment | Aeon
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essay

Deep time

Mutual entrapment

As Neolithic people transformed prehistoric forests, they stumbled into an ecological trap. Domestication goes both ways

Mette Løvschal

Dark horses in the cosmos | Aeon
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essay

Cosmology

Dark horses in the cosmos

Could primordial black holes from the beginning of time explain ‘dark matter’, the mysterious missing mass in the Universe?

Briley Lewis

This riotous life | Aeon
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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

Utuqaq | Aeon
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video

Earth science and climate

‘Ice has a memory’ – an Inuit poem contemplates scientific exploration of Greenland

28 minutes

The cosmic chasm | Aeon
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essay

Physics

The cosmic chasm

Physics as we know it is elegant and exquisitely accurate. It tells almost nothing about the deepest riddles of the Universe

Pedro G Ferreira

Cave art | Aeon
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essay

Art

Cave art

For Palaeolithic societies, art-making was both a tool for survival and a tactile, joyous exploration of the world

Izzy Wisher

Origin story | Aeon
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essay

Evolution

Origin story

Perched on the cusp between biology and chemistry, the start of life on Earth is an event horizon we struggle to see beyond

Natalie Elliot

Before, now, and next | Aeon
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essay

Thinkers and theories

Before, now, and next

Pastness, presentness and futurity seem to be real features of the world, but are they? On McTaggart’s philosophy of time

Emily Thomas

The planet is burning | Aeon
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essay

Deep time

The planet is burning

Wild, feral and fossil-fuelled, fire lights up the globe. Is it time to declare that humans have created a Pyrocene?

Stephen J Pyne

The cosmic now | Aeon
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essay

Cosmology

The cosmic now

Are you here now? Impossible to say. The idea that any group of events can truly happen at once is just an illusion

Anthony Aguirre

Timelapse of the future | Aeon
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video

Cosmology

Deep time and beyond: the great nothingness at the end of the Universe

29 minutes

We are heading for a New Cretaceous, not for a new normal | Aeon
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idea

Ecology and environmental sciences

We are heading for a New Cretaceous, not for a new normal

Peter Forbes

Time after time | Aeon
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essay

Physics

Time after time

The question of whether time moves in a loop or a line has occupied human minds for millennia. Has physics found the answer?

Paul Halpern

Fieldwork: comb jellies | Aeon
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video

Evolution

Take a shimmering, surreal swim with what might be the Earth’s oldest animals

7 minutes

We are dead stars | Aeon
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video

Cosmology

We are born of supernovas – our spectacular and totally ordinary origin story

4 minutes

What is the shape of space? | Aeon
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video

Physics

Why the apparent flatness of space is an enduring cosmological mystery

4 minutes

Animated life: Pangea, Wegener and the continental drift | Aeon
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video

Earth science and climate

How an Earth science outsider finally put the Pangea puzzle together

8 minutes

The known Universe | Aeon
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video

Cosmology

A journey from the Himalayas to the edge of our cosmic horizon in space and time

7 minutes

Riding light | Aeon
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video

Astronomy

The plodding photon, or how the speed of light looks sluggish on a galactic scale

45 minutes

The missing fossils matter as much as the ones we have found | Aeon
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idea

History of science

The missing fossils matter as much as the ones we have found

Adrian Currie & Derek Turner