Richard Fisher
Senior Editor, Aeon
Richard Fisher is a senior editor for Aeon, an honorary professor in science communication at University College London, and the author of the non-fiction book The Long View. Previously, he was an editor at the BBC and New Scientist, and a Knight Science Journalism Fellow at MIT.
What I’m looking for: For Aeon, I commission essays about science and technology. I primarily focus on the physical sciences – geology, physics, cosmology, space, oceans, climate, paleontology, chemistry, mathematics etc. In technology, I’m looking for essays that offer a psychological, philosophical or historical lens on our relationship with tech. Most of the writers I work with are academics, expert professionals, or book authors. For more details about what Aeon is looking for in a pitch, visit aeon.co/pitch
Edited by Richard Fisher
essay
Nations and empires
The rewards of ruin
Societal downfalls loom large in history and popular culture but, for the 99 per cent, collapse often had its upsides
Luke Kemp
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
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
essay
History of science
Injury and inhibition
The misunderstood story of Phineas Gage shows that we need a new way of understanding the experiences of brain injury survivors
Ben Platts-Mills
essay
Stories and literature
Merveilleux-scientifique
With brain swaps and death rays, a little-known French sci-fi genre explored science’s dark possibilities a century ago
Fleur Hopkins-Loféron
essay
Oceans and water
An oceanic tempo
An appreciation of the immensity embedded in the ocean’s cycles offers a way to reimagine our relationship with time
James Bradley
essay
Philosophy of language
Extraterrestrial tongues
Imagining how aliens might communicate prepares us for first contact and illuminates the nature of our own languages
Nikhil Mahant
essay
Philosophy of science
More-than-human science
When AI takes over the practice of science we will likely find the results strange and incomprehensible. Should we worry?
Brandon Boesch
essay
The environment
On unstable ground
A ‘great reshuffle’ of the land is underway. It will force us to reconsider traditional ideas of property and ownership
Michael Albertus
essay
Physics
The stagnation of physics
Physicists today need to jettison the all-too-attractive myth that they are uncovering the hidden reality of our Universe
Adrien De Sutter
essay
History of science
Legacy of the angels
When medieval scholars sought to understand the nature of angels, they unwittingly laid the foundations of modern physics
Rebekah Wallace
essay
Neuroscience
Why nothing matters
It took centuries for people to embrace the zero. Now it’s helping neuroscientists understand how the brain perceives absences
Benjy Barnett