Aeon
A digital magazine of ideas and culture
A monk harvests persimmons on Mount Athos. Photo by Travis Dove/National Geographic/Corbis
Relax, you're at work. Photo by Jason Madara/Gallery Stock
Photo by John Lund/Gallery Stock
The Soča river valley in Western Slovenia. Photo by Padraic Giardina/Getty

Oceanic Feeling

A monk harvests persimmons on Mount Athos. Photo by Travis Dove/National Geographic/Corbis

Ladder to heaven

I have turned away from the church but, up on Mount Athos, I turned on to the mysteries of Orthodox meditation

George Zarkadakis 07 June 2013

Living Together

Relax, you're at work. Photo by Jason Madara/Gallery Stock

Are coders worth it?

In today’s world, web developers have it all: money, perks, freedom, respect. But is there value in what we do?

James Somers 06 June 2013

Being Human

Photo by John Lund/Gallery Stock

Superhumans

Some people have neurological quirks that give them extraordinary perceptual powers. What can we learn from them?

Michael Banissy 05 June 2013

Nature and Cosmos

The Soča river valley in Western Slovenia. Photo by Padraic Giardina/Getty

Accidental rewilding

In places once thick with farms and cities, human dispossession and war has cleared the ground for nature to return

George Monbiot 04 June 2013

World Views

Illustration by Claire Scully

Physics’s pangolin

Trying to resolve the stubborn paradoxes of their field, physicists craft ever more mind-boggling visions of reality

Margaret Wertheim 03 June 2013

Nature and Cosmos

Picnic beside the cherry blossom in a Shinjuku park. Photo by Jérémie Souteyrat

Sakura

Heady with beauty, in cherry tree season Japan celebrates environmental values that Western greens have lost

Rebecca Giggs 28 May 2013

Being Human

Photo by Marshall Johnson/Gallerystock

Making good

Repairing things is about more than thrift. It is about creating something bold and original

Philip Ball 29 May 2013

Living Together

Shanghai 1993. Photo by Stuart Franklin/Magnum

Their good life

Governments are now providing free psychotherapy to their citizens. Is there a limit to state-sponsored happiness?

Jules Evans 30 May 2013

Oceanic Feeling

Photo by Archive Photos/Getty

Ivory challenge

I had a phobia of anyone hearing me play the piano. With practice, could my memory help me overcome it?

Katie Grant 31 May 2013
Popular
Upcoming

  • James Somers

    Dad’s company made burgers. Mine just eats them

    Mary H K Choi

    I love my mom a not-normal amount and it makes me crazy

    S Abbas Raza

    Is fasting good for you? What we know so far

    Julian Baggini

    Happy birthday Kierkegaard, we need you now

  • David Sloan Wilson

    What does evolution really have to say about politics?

    Emily Monosson

    Out of control: Hod Lipson's robots are evolving

    David Berreby

    Why humans, chimpanzees and marmosets alike are getting fatter

    Jesse Prinz

    The emotional core of art, science and religion: wonder

Previous

World Views

Photo by Reuters/Chris Helgren

Tom Chatfield

The world is awash with more text than ever before

Oceanic Feeling

Illustration by Thomas Danthony

Sven Birkerts

Paying close attention is an art and an act of the spirit

Living Together

Sharing a plate. Photo by ANA AREVALO/AFP/Getty

Jared Keller

Why do we choose to serve our dinner on social media?

Being Human

Photo by Photo Alto/Getty

Jay Watts

Is the Freudian slip still a road to the unconscious?

Nature and Cosmos

Photo courtesy NASA

Kurt Hollander

Why we should turn the world map on its side

World Views

Religious protesters oppose the Obama administration's federal mandate requiring all private health care plans to cover contraception and sterilisation, Washington, DC on March 23, 2012. Photo by Olivier Douliery

Mark Rowlands

Everyone is entitled to their beliefs, if not to act on them

Oceanic Feeling

Time of Rats: The mole is like Russia - a very strong but blind animal, controlled by pretty clever rats enjoying themselves on his back. Photo by Tatyana Jakovskaya

Kapka Kassabova

Nothing is happier, or sadder, than life’s union with art

Living Together

Munkhbat and Altangeret have lived down this manhole in Unur district of Ulaanbaatar for three years. The search for food and warmth rules their lives, as temperatures drop to -40C. Photo by Richard Wainwright

Ben Faccini

The grim intensity of a childhood on the street

Being Human

A model of a Neanderthal child at the Neanderthal Museum in Krapina, Croatia. Photo by Nikola Solic/Reuters

Marek Kohn

You might be closer to the Neanderthals than you thought

Nature and Cosmos

Tourists await sunset on Glacier Point. Yosemite National Park. Photo by Michael Melford/National Geographic

John Lemons

Busy and degraded, America's national parks are in decline

World Views

'When Garry Kasparov lost his second match against the IBM supercomputer Deep Blue in 1997, people predicted that computers would eventually destroy chess.' Photo by Jeffrey Sylvester

Steven Poole

Which decisions should we leave to algorithms?

Oceanic Feeling

A man takes part in a prayer service at Al Franji Synagogue in Damascus. Photo by John A Giordano

Adam Blitz

Passover in Damascus carries a bittersweet savour of the past

Living Together

Protests outside the Ministry of Interior are a near permanent fixture in central Tunis. Photo by Chedly Ben Ibrahim

Rachel Shabi

First came revolution, then rappers, graffiti and streetdance

Being Human

Human feet frozen in a block of ice. Photo by Jan Stromme/Getty,

Stephen Cave

Is it rational to think we can cheat death with cryonics?

Nature and Cosmos

Julia Butterfly Hill spent 738 days living in a 55m California Redwood tree in a successful attempt to prevent the clearing of surrounding forest. Photo by Eric Slomanson

Sarah Pike

Eco-activists speak about their conversion experiences

World Views

Illustration by Stephen Collins

Julian Baggini

Happy birthday Kierkegaard, we need you now

Oceanic Feeling

Fifth grade students engage in Yoga during a class at Paul Ecke Central Elementary School in Encinitas, Photo by Sandy Huffaker/Corbis

Erik Davis

Are you flexible enough to worship the sun?

Living Together

Interstate Highway 5 in California, 1991. Photo by Joseph Sohm/Visions of America/Corbis

Maria Bustillos

Driving the Five is a meditation on the state of California

Being Human

Is less more? Photo by Thom Atkinson/Gallery Stock

S Abbas Raza

Is fasting good for you? What we know so far

Nature and Cosmos

Tupilaq figures, Tuktoyaktuk, Northwest Territories, Canada. Photo by Lowell Georgia/Corbis

Matthew Battles

A museum’s cabinet of curiosities is also a chamber of secrets

Aeon Audio

Listen to our Spoken Essays at Aeon Audio.

© Aeon Magazine Ltd. 2013  Privacy policy »
Designed by MagCulture, built by Human After All.