wavegrower Leonard Susskind , a pioneer of string theory , the holographic principle and other big physics ideas spanning the past half century, has proposed a solution to an important puzzle about black holes . The problem is that even though these mysterious, invisible spheres appear to stay a…

We’ve needed fear to survive as a species. But how do you not let the emotional response of the fear reflex run wild? A friend of mine who works for a jewelry company that makes necklaces inscribed with empowering sayings recently offered me one. “How about the ‘I am fearless’ one?” she asked. “I…

Michael Cohen Got Wise. Will America? His sad journey is an extreme version of the country’s. Opinion Columnist Credit Ben Wiseman Michael Cohen put his chips on, and faith in, someone who didn’t deserve it. He was dazzled. He was entertained. He wanted a patron. He needed a guide. So he disregarded…

Donald Knuth at his home in Stanford, Calif. He is a notorious perfectionist and has offered to pay a reward to anyone who finds a mistake in any of his books. Credit Brian Flaherty for The New York Times Skip to contentSkip to site index Profiles in science Donald Knuth, master of algorithms,…

matter Two genes inherited from our evolutionary cousins may affect skull shape and brain size even today. What that means for human behavior is a mystery. A rendering of a Neanderthal skull, left, compared to that of a modern human. By measuring Neanderthal skull volume, scientists have found that…

I treat my annual best-of reading lists as Old Year’s resolutions in reverse — unlike traditional resolutions, which frame aspirational priorities for the new year, they present a record of the reading that merited priority over the year past. In consequence, they are invariably subjective and…

Advertisements As a bonus contribution to his Hump-Day History piece , Thony Christie also sent us along the following reflection on Halley’s Comet, Newton’s theory of gravitation, and December 25th. Exactly two hundred and fifty years ago, on 25th December 1758, Johann Georg Palitzsch, a German…

Believing without evidence is always morally wrong If I believe it is raining outside… The Umbrella (1883) by Marie Bashkirtseff. Courtesy the State Russian Museum/Wikipedia i by Francisco Mejia Uribe

Stoicism is a type of virtue ethics. As such, the focus is on the improvement of one’s character, not on telling others what to do or not to do. Contrast this with a typical deontological (i.e., duty-based) system, like the famous Ten Commandments of the Old Testament recognized by the three…

In Alton, Illinois, a small town across the Mississippi River from St. Louis, Missouri, lies the grave of Elijah Parish Lovejoy. Lovejoy was a journalist who was murdered by a racist mob in 1837. Lovejoy moved at age 25 to St. Louis, the site of violent clashes over black freedom. Missouri was a…

It seems nearly certain now that Jamal Khashoggi, the Saudi journalist, died a slow and agonizing death, the kind that none of us could dare imagine for ourselves. It seems equally clear that Khashoggi, a Virginia resident and a columnist for the Washington Post , was murdered, probably on orders of…

Judge Brett Kavanaugh testifying before the Senate Judiciary Committee last week. Credit Erin Schaff for The New York Times Opinion The Angry White Male Caucus Trumpism is all about the fear of losing traditional privilege. Judge Brett Kavanaugh testifying before the Senate Judiciary Committee last…

THE STONE Nietzsche Made Me Do It What was I trying to escape by making this dangerous trek? Sept. 22, 2018 Credit... Eva Vázquez Send any friend a story As a subscriber, you have 10 gift articles to

Swimming in Words With Oliver Sacks His love of language has a life of its own. Oliver Sacks’ copy of “Cartesian Linguistics,” by Noam Chomsky. Credit... Bill Hayes By Mr. Hayes is the author of “ Ins

Advertisements It’s time to reclaim the mantle of “Progress” for progressives. By falsely tethering the concept of progress to free market economics and centrist values, Steven Pinker has tried to appropriate a great idea for which he has no rightful claim. In Enlightenment Now: The Case for Reason,…

US marines near Falluja, Iraq, April 30, 2004. (Reuters / Oleg Popov) EDITOR’S NOTE: This article originally appeared at TomDispatch.com . To stay on top of important articles like these, sign up to receive the latest updates from TomDispatch.com. They are the extremists. If you need proof, look no…

Photo: Tony Millionaire/New York Magazine “My whole life I’ve been greedy, greedy, greedy,” declared Donald Trump during the 2016 campaign. “I’ve grabbed all the money I could get. I’m so greedy. But now I want to be greedy for the United States.” To the extent that Trump’s candidacy offered any…

The marriage proposal is one of the most ritualized moments in modern American life. Growing up, many girls are instilled with a specific idea of how it should go: He’ll take us somewhere romantic—we’

Advertisements golden 3d number 5 isolated on white An anonymous poster has recently published a short essay over at the Oxford University Press philosophy blog, entitled “ 5 great unsolved philosophical questions .” How could I possibly resist answering them, I ask you? Presumptuous, you might say.…

(iStock) We often get derailed in our exercise routines because we can’t fit the perfect workout into our day. We think we must go to a gym, or a certain class, or use a particular technique. And we end up doing nothing at all. According to the annual State of Obesity report, “Eighty percent of…

Simple Ways to Be Better at Remembering When the sum total of human knowledge rests an arm’s length away in each person’s pocket, why do we have to remember anything anymore? On an average day most of

15 MINUTE READ Perfect for you if: You’ve always wanted to be better at remembering things. You’ve heard of or tried Spaced Repetition but aren’t sure what’s next. “Why would I memorise things when I can look anything I want up in two seconds?” Memorisation is a powerful learning technique that is…

Guian Bolisay/Flickr Edited by Sam Haselby Republish Terms You may republish this article online or in print under our Creative Commons licence. You may not edit or shorten the text, you must attribute the article to Aeon and you must include the author’s name in your republication. If you are…

In 1984, the philosopher Aaron Sloman invited scholars to describe ‘the space of possible minds’. Sloman’s phrase alludes to the fact that human minds, in all their variety, are not the only sorts of minds. There are, for example, the minds of other animals, such as chimpanzees, crows and octopuses.…

The day I first flew in the cockpit of an airliner, I fell in love with the sights, of course, but also the sounds. I wasn’t a pilot then, not yet. I was a passenger on a British Airways Boeing 747, on a flight from Tokyo to London. I was a business traveller in those days, a management consultant…

Do you believe that positive thinking can help you achieve your goals? Many people today do. Pop psychology and the $12 billion self-help industry reinforce a widespread belief that positive thinking can improve our moods and lead to beneficial life changes. In her book The Secret Daily Teachings…

Panache 2620/Flickr Listen here 0:00 0:00 Brought to you by curio.io , an Aeon partner Edited by Sam Dresser Republish Terms You may republish this article online or in print under our Creative Commons licence. You may not edit or shorten the text, you must attribute the article to Aeon and you must…

Albert Camus by Cecil Beaton for Vogue in 1946. Photo by Getty Listen here 0:00 0:00 Brought to you by curio.io , an Aeon partner Edited by Brigid Hains Republish Terms You may republish this article online or in print under our Creative Commons licence. You may not edit or shorten the text, you…

In July 1656, the 23-year-old Bento de Spinoza was excommunicated from the Portuguese-Jewish congregation of Amsterdam. It was the harshest punishment of herem (ban) ever issued by that community. The extant document, a lengthy and vitriolic diatribe, refers to the young man’s ‘abominable heresies’…

Illustration by Nishant Choksi On the night of November 7, 1876, Rutherford B. Hayes’s wife, Lucy, took to her bed with a headache. The returns from the Presidential election were trickling in, and the Hayeses, who had been spending the evening in their parlor, in Columbus, Ohio, were dismayed.…

I began learning German at the age of 13, and I’m still trying to explain to myself why it was love at first sound. The answer must surely be: the excellence of my teacher. At an English public school

President Donald Trump at a rally in April. Al Drago/The New York Times Can an autocrat be ridiculous? Can a democracy be destroyed by someone who has only the barest idea of what the word “democracy” means? Can pure incompetence plunge the world into a catastrophic war? We don’t like to think so.…

Twentyone years ago physicist Alan Sokal perpetrated his famous hoax at the expense of the postmodernist journal Social Text. It was at the height of the so-called “ science wars ” of the ’90s, and Sokal, as a scientist fed up with a lot of extreme statements about the social construction of…

Seven years and three days ago, the House of Representatives grumblingly voted to approve the Senate’s version of the Affordable Care Act. Democrats in the House were displeased by many of the changes introduced by Senate Democrats. But in the interval after Senate passage, the Republicans had…

Fruit of a Poison Tree Protesters outside the Supreme Court on Tuesday. So the “president,” who was “elected” under the fog of Russian interference (now under investigation by both houses of Congress)

The cryptic letter James Comey, the F.B.I. director, sent to Congress on Friday looked bizarre at the time — seeming to hint at a major new Clinton scandal, but offering no substance. Given what we know now, however, it was worse than bizarre, it was outrageous. Mr. Comey apparently had no evidence…