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Support Aeon. Aeon is a registered charity committed to the spread of knowledge and a cosmopolitan worldview. Our mission is to create a sanctuary online for serious thinking. No ads, no paywall, no clickbait – just thought-provoking ideas from the world’s leading thinkers, free to all. But we can’t do it without you.

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All creatures great and small

3 minutes

Forget space – the unknown worlds in pond scum are rich with life’s secrets

During the 1970s, Elizabeth Blackburn discovered something fundamentally important about life, uncovering the function of telomeres, which cap strands of DNA and protect chromosomes. She would go on to earn a Nobel Prize for her work in 2009. In this sprightly animated video from Nature, Blackburn recounts how a love of all living creatures – and especially the frequently overlooked, microscopic ones – inspired her curiosity and her work.

Video by Dog & Rabbit

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Support Aeon

Become a Friend for $5 a month or Make a one-off donation

Become a Friend of Aeon or Make a donation

Aeon is a registered charity committed to the spread of knowledge. Our mission is to create a sanctuary online for serious thinking.
But we can’t do it without you.

Aeon is a registered charity committed to the spread of knowledge and a cosmopolitan worldview.
But we can’t do it without you.

Essay/
Evolution
Evolving street-smarts

Living among humans favours fearless problem-solvers interested in new things. That's how city birds get smarter

Menno Schilthuizen

Essay/
History of Science
What is good science?

Demanding that a theory is falsifiable or observable, without any subtlety, will hold science back. We need madcap ideas

Adam Becker