Menu
Aeon
DonateNewsletter
SIGN IN

Science

Essays and videos exploring physics, evolution, cosmology and other frontiers in science
Save

video

Earth science and climate

The only man permitted in Bhutan’s sacred mountains chronicles humanity’s impact

22 minutes

Save

video

Ecology and environmental sciences

The ancient Hawaiian myth that sparked a modern ecological breakthrough

10 minutes

Save

video

Deep time

When algae met fungi – the hidden story of life’s most successful partnership

4 minutes

Save

video

Ecology and environmental sciences

From helicopter flybys to trail cameras, there’s no one way to count a wolf

8 minutes

Save

video

Nature and landscape

Take a serene hike through an ancient forest, inspired by a Miyazaki masterpiece

6 minutes

Save

video

Biology

To understand how an animal sees the world, start with the shape of its pupils

5 minutes

Save

video

The environment

Tree-sit with activists as they fight industrial logging from 100 feet above the ground

25 minutes

Save

video

Animals and humans

Scientists brought a wild horse back from extinction. But is it truly the same animal?

5 minutes

Save

video

Ecology and environmental sciences

The grassroots project that’s restoring an endangered Hawaiian ecosystem

22 minutes

Save

video

Thinkers and theories

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

13 minutes

Save

video

Architecture

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

8 minutes

Save

video

Ecology and environmental sciences

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

12 minutes

Save

essay

Environmental history

Disturbance

How atomic doomsday experiments, fuelled by Cold War fears, shaped then shook ecologists’ faith in self-healing nature

Laura J Martin

Save

video

Biology

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

6 minutes

Save

video

Biology

Flicker through the eclectic beauty and biological diversity of 2,400 leaves

3 minutes

Save

essay

Nature and landscape

Home and the birdsong

In the dark, sylvan villages of medieval England, people named places after the birds that filled the night with music

Michael J Warren

Save

video

Knowledge

Yes, the Inuit have dozens of words for snow – but what does each one mean exactly?

6 minutes

Save

essay

Oceans and water

Tomorrow’s corals

A warming planet and acid oceans will radically transform marine ecosystems. How will our beloved reefs survive?

Klaus M Stiefel & James D Reimer

Save

essay

Deep time

Mutual entrapment

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

Mette Løvschal

Save

video

Ecology and environmental sciences

Producing food while restoring the planet – a glimpse of farming in the future

7 minutes

Save

video

Ecology and environmental sciences

Yo-Yo Ma performs a work for cello in the woods, accompanied by a birdsong chorus

4 minutes

Save

essay

Anthropology

Keeping our options open

Frantic human activity has reduced both cultural and biological diversity. Now we must protect the dwindling alternatives

Thomas Hylland Eriksen

Save

video

The environment

Photographs of rainforests dissolving in acid strike a beautiful note of warning

10 minutes

Save

video

Ecology and environmental sciences

Experience the dazzling displays that fireflies create when humans are far away

5 minutes