NewsDeck

On a regular cycle, the Nias islanders of Indonesia would retreat into enforced seclusion. What can we learn from them?By Andrew Beatty Read at Aeon

As economic inequality increased in many wealthy nations in recent years, a debate has developed around the question of whether inequality is bad for national […]

A former graduate student reflects on how Isadore Singer, who died on February 11, brought together mathematicians, physicists and anyone else interested in […]

A brief history of melancholy: how philosophers, poets and scientists across the ages shaped our understanding of sadnessBy Aeon Video Watch at Aeon

It damages memory and cognition, and brings no lasting relief. Why is ‘electroshock’ therapy still a mainstay of psychiatry?By John Read Read at Aeon

When we first meet L3, Lando Calrissian’s droid co-pilot in the 2018 film Solo: A Star Wars Story, she’s railing against a brutal droid-on-droid cage match […]

When he was a boy, Mark Solms obsessed over big existential questions. What happens when I die? What makes me who I am? He went on to study neuroscience but […]

The 21st century is a time of great scientific discovery. Cars are driving themselves. Vaccines against deadly new viruses are created in less than a year. The […]

A new thought experiment indicates that quantum mechanics doesn’t work without strange numbers that turn negative when squared. The post Imaginary Numbers […]

In a second season of enlightened conversations, Steven Strogatz and leading researchers nourish our pandemic-starved minds. The post New Season of The Joy of […]

Exquisite armour, long-dormant burial object, astounding archeological discovery: the many lives of the ‘Sutton Hoo helmet’By Aeon Video Watch at Aeon

To the surprise of experts in the field, a postdoctoral statistician has solved one of the most important problems in high-dimensional convex geometry. The […]

When established medicine can offer no relief from lifelong gut issues, a biohacker embarks on a radical self-experimentBy Aeon Video Watch at Aeon

How a flawed logic of economic scarcity and social climbing spurred witch hunts in early modern GermanyBy Johannes Dillinger Read at Aeon

A devastating loss can shatter the façade we put up for others, exposing our deepest, rawest self. A work of art can do the sameBy Julia F Christensen Read at […]

Researchers are tracking the different strains of SARS-CoV-2 and studying how they spread through our population and our bodies. The post How to Understand […]

Does mathematics have a ‘beauty’ problem? Sabine Hossenfelder explains why searching for elegance in nature stifles progressBy Aeon Video Watch at Aeon

Christine Korsgaard argues that we can extend a Kantian moral framework to include other animals. But her argument failsBy Peter Godfrey-Smith Read at Aeon

Everyone seems to be talking about the problems with physics: Peter Woit’s book Not Even Wrong, Lee Smolin’s The Trouble With Physics, and Sabine […]

Suppose aliens existed, and imagine that some of them had been watching our planet for its entire four and a half billion years. What would they have seen? […]

In the past quarter century, enrollment in college English departments has sunk like the Pequod in Moby Dick. Meanwhile enrollment in science programs has […]

The theoretical physicist Carlo Rovelli sits by the fire with Hazda hunter-gatherers, pondering our evolutionary pastBy Aeon Video Watch at Aeon

To respect exiles as real and important political actors, we should get over casting them as saints, threats or victimsBy Ashwini Vasanthakumar Read at Aeon

A poignant reflection on celebrity, mourning and Kobe Bryant’s death, crafted from just a few intimate words among familyBy Aeon Video Watch at Aeon

As a soldier, I was hard-wired to seek meaning and purpose. Gray’s philosophy helped me unhook from utopia and find peaceBy Andy Owen Read at Aeon

The ethical life means being good to ourselves, to others, and to the world. But how do you choose if these demands compete?By Irene McMullin Read at Aeon

Surveillance capitalism tracks everything we do and say, and sells that data. To save ‘free markets’, Big Tech must be stoppedBy Aeon Video Watch at Aeon

How a country used myth and mystique to tempt global investors – and seeded a toxic Hindu nationalism in the processBy Ravinder Kaur Read at Aeon

Carl Hart is a neuroscientist and Ziff Professor of Psychology at Columbia University—he was the first tenured African-American professor of sciences at […]

Not since World War II has there been as great a threat to mental health as the current COVID-19 pandemic, according to Aiden James. The challenges to our […]