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Aeon
Black and white photo of a man with many arms doing different tasks: smoking, writing, reading and using scissors.

In praise of the dilettante

A wayfaring cosmopolitan who never gets stuck, the dilettante is the right anti-hero for our hyper-specialised age

Black and white photo of a man with many arms doing different tasks: smoking, writing, reading and using scissors.

essayCosmopolitanism

In praise of the dilettante

A wayfaring cosmopolitan who never gets stuck, the dilettante is the right anti-hero for our hyper-specialised age

Jay Miller

A frosted glass door with metal handle, card reader and a number 0 sign on a beige wall, indoors.

essayPhysics

The physics of getting fired

Physics offered me a sense of order and purpose. But when life got messy I realised it had a much deeper insight to give

Zahaan Bharmal

Photo of a mosque on a street with snow-capped mountains and blue sky in background and people, cars and a flying pigeon in the foreground

videoWellbeing

An Afghan woman recalls how her country’s devastation led to her own

8 minutes

A person walking uphill on a snowy slope against a cloudy sky with wind-blown snow patterns.

essayMood and emotion

Love with nowhere to go

Grief is not only for the dead. When we are unable to honour other profound losses, we become strangers to ourselves

Derek van Zoonen

A man with a white beard examines an ancient tablet in a library, surrounded by books and various artefacts.

videoThe ancient world

Letters from Bronze Age rulers reveal how little diplomacy has changed

42 minutes

Art Deco painting of a woman in a headscarf driving a car staring intently, with bold colours and stylised forms.

videoArt

The bisexual artist who reimagined womanhood for the Jazz Age

16 minutes

Soldiers in a dimly lit room, some standing and some seated on a patterned floor with sunlight streaming through a window behind them.

essayWar and peace

How to build real peace

From Colombia to Syria, I’ve seen that capitalist logic can’t help to rebuild postwar countries but cooperatives can

Azize Aslan

Video of a match striking against a textured surface creating a small flame with a dark background.

essayHistory of technology

Traction!

Tribologists study friction: what happens when things rub together. It’s indispensable, from the wheel to the paths of stars

Jennifer R Vail

Photo of a boy in a sports jacket, looking thoughtful with his reflection in a dimly lit mirror behind him.

videoTechnology and the self

What happened when the only country to ban TV lifted the ban?

10 minutes

A group hug in a shed doorway, with people embracing closely. Blue walls, metal roof and a door are visible.

essayHome

Other people

Disconnection is at the heart of today’s crises. So my husband and I chose a radical and revealing remedy: living communally

Elizabeth Oldfield

Photo of a subway station with people and makeshift sleeping areas on the platform, white columns and a distant tunnel.

videoWar and peace

What four years of ceaseless war looks like to Ukrainian civilians

36 minutes

Black and white photo of two men shaking hands while a woman looks on with a wary expression, set in an urban environment.

essayPhilosophy of mind

How intuitions work

Just as seeing a tree gives you reason to believe it’s there, sensing that a stranger is creepy gives you reason to walk away

Marc A Moffett

Photo of a marble quarry wall with patterns of grey and brown rock. Wooden railings run along the stone steps at the base.

videoThinkers and theories

There’s nothing inherently good in the ‘natural’, argues Bruno Latour

6 minutes

A detailed painting of a historic battle scene with soldiers, horses and weapons in action, featuring vibrant colours and intricate detail.

essayHistory of technology

Horrible, unmanly, indispensable

Renaissance Italians saw the gun as the Devil’s work. But soon they embraced this unchivalrous – and necessary – weapon

Catherine Fletcher

Side view of a marble bust of an elderly man with a stern expression on a dark background.

essayThe ancient world

How to be a (Roman) man

Cicero’s ideal of manly virtue stressed the performance of self-control and bravery, not boastful egotism and domination

Catharine Edwards

Photo of an ivory carving depicting a bird, shown from three angles against a black background.

videoArchaeology

Hohle Fels cave illuminates the rich symbolic world of Ice Age humans

11 minutes

Black and white photo of overlapping industrial structures with geometric patterns and shadows creating a complex design.

essayKnowledge

The ladder of knowledge

What we claim as ‘true’ is not a ceiling we are forever failing to reach but something that changes as we climb toward it

Alexander V Gheorghiu

Photo of four women in desert gear walking across a dry landscape, carrying equipment with vehicles in the background.

videoWar and peace

The all-female team defusing ISIS’s deadly landmine legacy

24 minutes

Silhouette of a hiker with a walking stick against a backdrop of layered mountains on a clear day; photo.

essayTechnology and the self

Deskilling the body

We are, moment by moment, doing less sensing, navigating, remembering, walking, choosing, and attending

Melanie Challenger

Photo of two people thatching a large conical roof with ladders surrounded by a green landscape and trees.

videoSpirituality

The fragile majesty of the Buganda royal tombs in Uganda

11 minutes

A cat sitting on a worn red sofa with scattered cushions against a textured beige wall.

essayMetaphysics

Is everything conscious?

If the question makes no sense to you, try spending some time with the principle of sufficient reason

Sam Kimpton-Nye

Black and white photo of a woman in sunglasses speaking at a podium with microphones.

essayProgress and modernity

Barbara Ward’s vision

She was among the first to argue that prosperity, equality and the protection of nature are inseparable planetary goals

Or Rosenboim

Illustration of an ancient city layout surrounded by water and farmland viewed from above.

videoCities

Manhattan’s evolution over centuries captured via meticulous animation

8 minutes

A person in black clothing and a hat by a bridge and stairs in a historic area, with buildings and signs in the background.

essayRace and ethnicity

The ghetto on the lagoon

Sixteenth-century Venice wanted to expel its Jews but couldn’t do without them. Its compromise was the world’s first ghetto

Alexander Lee

Photo of two people entering a building with ornate blue mosaic tiles and large wooden doors, tree in foreground.

videoFamily life

An Iranian couple seek out the recipient of their late son’s heart

15 minutes