Our human minds hold us back from truly understanding the many brilliant ways that other creatures solve their problems - by Abigail Desmond & Michael Haslam Read at Aeon | Continue reading
Tinnitus is like a constant scream inside my head, depriving me of what I formerly treasured: the moments of serene quiet - by Diego Ramírez Martín del Campo Read at Aeon | Continue reading
New archaeological discoveries shed light on the story of Boudica – the ancient Celtic queen who rebelled against Rome - by Aeon Video Watch at Aeon | Continue reading
Can a butterfly’s wings trigger a distant hurricane? The answer depends on the perspective you take: physics or human agency - by Erik Van Aken Read at Aeon | Continue reading
A poignant connection between the erosions of landscape and memory at a former Japanese internment camp in California - by Aeon Video Watch at Aeon | Continue reading
In the 1840s, the iconoclastic scientist Gustav Fechner made an inspired case for taking seriously the interior lives of plants - by Rachael Petersen Read at Aeon | Continue reading
In the mountains of northern India, one of the last artisans of his kind keeps the tradition of crafting metal teapots alive - by Aeon Video Watch at Aeon | Continue reading
The Decadent movement taught that you should live your life with the greatest intensity – a dangerous and thrilling challenge - by Kate Hext Read at Aeon | Continue reading
Why introductory economics courses continued to teach zombie ideas from before economics became an empirical discipline - by Walter Frick Read at Aeon | Continue reading
Could inequality be morally justified in a system of equal opportunity? How Rawls’s vision for democracy holds up 50 years on - by Aeon Video Watch at Aeon | Continue reading
Selfishness channels ambition, envy drives competition, pride aids the win. Does it take a bad person to be a good athlete? - by Sabrina Little Read at Aeon | Continue reading
How the sudden death of Alfred Tennyson’s best friend at a young age moulded him into the ‘great English poet of grief’ - by Aeon Video Watch at Aeon | Continue reading
While science illuminates the gut-brain relationship, doctors remain ignorant and dismissive of patients with gut problems - by Xi Chen Read at Aeon | Continue reading
On a remote Icelandic island, teens rescue young puffins who’ve lost their way while pondering their own uncertain futures - by Aeon Video Watch at Aeon | Continue reading
For the entire 20th century, it had felt like telepathy was just around the corner. Why is that especially true now? - by Roger Luckhurst Read at Aeon | Continue reading
A friend and a falcon went missing. In pain, I turned to ‘Slaughterhouse-Five’ – and found a new vision of sorrow and time - by Emily Polk Read at Aeon | Continue reading
From wise helpers to fire-breathers, each culture gets the dragons it deserves. On the origins of these reptilian beasts - by Aeon Video Watch at Aeon | Continue reading
Why did Japanese Confucians enthusiastically support Imperial Japan’s murderous conquest of China, the homeland of Confucius? - by Shaun O’Dwyer Read at Aeon | Continue reading
From gifts of bread to a dowry negotiation – a charming portrait of courtship rituals and marriage in 1950s rural Poland - by Aeon Video Watch at Aeon | Continue reading
Margaret Cavendish’s boldness and bravery set 17th-century society alight, but is she a feminist poster-girl for our times? - by Francesca Peacock Read at Aeon | Continue reading
After the closure of a mine that once gave the town its name, the residents of Asbestos long for its industrial past - by Aeon Video Watch at Aeon | Continue reading
To take care of the Earth, humans must recognise that we are both a part of the animal kingdom and its dominant power - by Hugh Desmond Read at Aeon | Continue reading
Workers with mental illness experience discrimination that would be unthinkable for other health issues. Can this change? - by Pernille Yilmam Read at Aeon | Continue reading
The otherwise unremarkable insect from Mexico that’s used to make the most dazzling and coveted crimson colour - by Aeon Video Watch at Aeon | Continue reading
When quantum mechanics posed a threat to the Marxist doctrine of materialism, communist physicists sought to reconcile the two - by Jim Baggott Read at Aeon | Continue reading
An animated day-in-the-life of this historic English county travels from market to dale to capture its northern essence - by Aeon Video Watch at Aeon | Continue reading
Don’t be swayed by the sound of environmental protest: these songs were first sung in the voice of the cutter, not the tree - by Richard Smyth Read at Aeon | Continue reading
This NASA simulation lets viewers into the extraordinary spectacle of entering a blackhole (minus the spaghettification) - by Aeon Video Watch at Aeon | Continue reading
A free and unified Europe was first imagined by Italian radicals in the 19th century. Could we yet see their dream made real? - by Fernanda Gallo Read at Aeon | Continue reading
What might a people, subjected to unspeakable historical suffering, think about the ethics of vengeance once in power? - by Shachar Pinsker Read at Aeon | Continue reading
‘So was I once myself a swinger of birches’ – Robert Frost reads his celebrated poem on yearning for the freedoms of youth - by Aeon Video Watch at Aeon | Continue reading
For 3,000 years, humans have struggled to understand the embryo. Now there is a revolution underway - by John Wallingford Read at Aeon | Continue reading
The target of a sextortion scam upends the experience by soliciting his friends’ views on masturbation and shame - by Aeon Video Watch at Aeon | Continue reading
Given its intimacy with the body and deep play on form and function, furniture is a ripely ambiguous artform of its own - by Emma Crichton Miller Read at Aeon | Continue reading
Men and women can’t touch in Iranian cinema, so filmmakers creatively work around the ban by using props as a go-between - by Aeon Video Watch at Aeon | Continue reading
In order to help improve my students’ mental health, I offered a course on the science of happiness. It worked – but why? - by Bruce Hood Read at Aeon | Continue reading
How perforated squares of trippy blotter paper allowed outlaw chemists and wizard-alchemists to dose the world with LSD - by Erik Davis Read at Aeon | Continue reading
Captioning dialogue is one thing; captioning sound is another. This is how the artist Christine Sun Kim would do it - by Aeon Video Watch at Aeon | Continue reading
In the liminal time when the brain is dead but organs are kept alive, there is an urgent tenderness to medical care - by Ronald W Dworkin Read at Aeon | Continue reading
Meet Hypatia of Alexandria, a rare female – and moderate secular – public intellectual, who was murdered by religious zealots - by Aeon Video Watch at Aeon | Continue reading
We need to find a way for human societies to prosper while the planet heals. So far we can’t even think clearly about it - by Ville Lähde Read at Aeon | Continue reading
Profile of the pioneering Canadian architect whose modernist designs disintegrated boundaries between structure and place - by Aeon Video Watch at Aeon | Continue reading
New research transports us back to the shadowy firelight of ancient caves, imagining the minds and feelings of the artist - by Izzy Wisher Read at Aeon | Continue reading
In Jack London’s novel, Martin Eden personifies debates still raging over the role and purpose of education in American life - by Nick Romeo Read at Aeon | Continue reading
A novel study in rural China suggests that witchcraft accusations may have arisen as a means of damaging female competitors - by Aeon Video Watch at Aeon | Continue reading
In a country of such extraordinary diversity, the UN definition of ‘indigenous’ does little more than fuel ethnic violence - by Dikshit Sarma Bhagabati Read at Aeon | Continue reading
‘60 per cent community, 40 per cent skateboarding’ – a portrait of London’s growing skate scene on animated sketchbook pages - by Aeon Video Watch at Aeon | Continue reading
Not long ago the search for extraterrestrials was considered laughable nonsense. Today, it’s serious and scientific - by Adam Frank Read at Aeon | Continue reading