Many species won't survive without our help, but what should that help look like? I wrote about this for @aeon.co
aeon.co/essays/shoul...
@richardfisher.bsky.social
Senior Editor, Aeon | Author of non-fiction book The Long View | Honorary professor in science communication, UCL | Formerly: BBC Future, MIT Knight Science Journalism fellow, New Scientist | https://richardfisher.carrd.co
Many species won't survive without our help, but what should that help look like? I wrote about this for @aeon.co
aeon.co/essays/shoul...
that's me in the picture, enjoying my mid-40s
19.09.2025 07:49 β π 0 π 0 π¬ 0 π 0A short Note to Self I wrote for @psyche.co about the graph that more or less changed the course of my life psyche.co/notes-to-sel...
19.09.2025 07:49 β π 1 π 1 π¬ 1 π 0The astronaut-scientist Harrison Schmitt during the third Apollo 17 extravehicular activity at the Taurus-Littrow landing site on the Moon, 13 December 1972. Courtesy NASA
My debut for @aeon.co:
Life formed incredibly early in Earth's history, so the idea that our world was once an unliveable hellscape is just not true.
https://aeon.co/essays/life-on-earth-emerged-fast-far-quicker-than-we-thought
The next day, Phil returns to ask for a copy of the photo. He knocks at the door... "Sally? Who is Sally?" the man asks.
15.08.2025 10:00 β π 6 π 0 π¬ 1 π 0Weβd love to know what you think about Aeon. Share your thoughts in our quick survey tinyurl.com/3ujtcary
11.08.2025 14:01 β π 0 π 1 π¬ 0 π 0Popular perceptions of past empires focus on their great artwork and monumental achievements. But in recent years, many historians have taken a different approach, asking: what was it like as an ordinary person to live through these imperial collapses?
05.08.2025 10:32 β π 19 π 10 π¬ 3 π 2Absolutely delightful piece on our magnificent cosmic web by my friend and sometime collaborator @markneyrinck.bsky.social, who reminds us that the beauty of cosmos is also always here on earth with us. ππ§ͺ #scicomm
aeon.co/essays/how-t...
Do you need a brain to have a memory? Slime moulds suggest not. A new @aeon.co essay by @philosobio.bsky.social aeon.co/essays/what-...
11.07.2025 14:47 β π 7 π 2 π¬ 1 π 0At the moment, I'm particularly looking for *scientists* interested in writing for @aeon.co. Is that you? I have recently commissioned essays on geology, oceans, cosmology, astronomy, Antarctica, the brain, computer science, quantum and more. aeon.co/science
23.06.2025 08:27 β π 34 π 18 π¬ 1 π 3What a fantastic piece of multimedia storytelling this is www.nytimes.com/interactive/...
29.06.2025 16:55 β π 5 π 0 π¬ 0 π 0Learned some thing about Phineas Gage, a case I've always thought was really interesting.
26.06.2025 22:22 β π 54 π 7 π¬ 1 π 4Merveilleux-scientifique
With brain swaps and death rays, a little-known French sci-fi genre explored scienceβs dark possibilities a century ago
By Fleur Hopkins-LofΓ©ron
aeon.co/essays/how-f...
Maurice Renard at PG:
www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/autho...
#books #sciencefiction
Anyway I'd really recommend spending a bit of time with Ben's essay, which explores the legacies and contradictions of these two men. He spent months working on it, and it's written with compassion, rigour and insight.
24.06.2025 07:29 β π 2 π 0 π¬ 0 π 0...whereas Eadweard Muybridge - another brain injury survivor who was a contemporary of Gage's, but a different class - has been lauded. I had seen Muybridge's photography (it's displayed in my local cinema in Kingston where he was born, for instance). What I never realised: he murdered a guy.
24.06.2025 07:29 β π 3 π 0 π¬ 1 π 0Gage is commonly described as a case study for "disinhibition", a behaviour change prompted by brain injury. But as Ben explores in the essay, the evidence for that is rather thin...
24.06.2025 07:29 β π 1 π 0 π¬ 1 π 0One thing I'd never done until recently was look closely at Phineas Gage's photo, especially his good eye. He was probably far more complex than he is described in the textbooks. Ben Platts-Mills investigates how Gage's humanity has been overwritten to create a case study aeon.co/essays/how-t...
24.06.2025 07:29 β π 10 π 3 π¬ 1 π 1Thank you for sharing!
23.06.2025 11:15 β π 1 π 0 π¬ 1 π 0Thanks very much for sharing!
23.06.2025 11:15 β π 1 π 0 π¬ 0 π 0About me as an editor: I'm primarily focused on the physical sciences, nature/environment, technology and neuroscience... less so health/medicine/biology, but we have other editors for that! This is me: richardfisher.carrd.co
23.06.2025 08:48 β π 1 π 0 π¬ 0 π 0Just to add: an essay idea needn't be the culmination of a life's work, or a fit-for-journal finding: it could be an open question you're wrestling with, a mystery that intrigues you, an idea you're exploring. We aim to capture science as it develops, in pursuit of knowledge, not just end products!
23.06.2025 08:27 β π 0 π 0 π¬ 1 π 0At Aeon, we offer a supportive & creative editing process (working with me!) We're open-access, with a global general audience of smart readers. Many of our writers are postdocs/early-career. We pay an honorarium. Any questions, send a DM! #science #scicomm
23.06.2025 08:27 β π 1 π 0 π¬ 1 π 0At the moment, I'm particularly looking for *scientists* interested in writing for @aeon.co. Is that you? I have recently commissioned essays on geology, oceans, cosmology, astronomy, Antarctica, the brain, computer science, quantum and more. aeon.co/science
23.06.2025 08:27 β π 34 π 18 π¬ 1 π 3The macabre book covers alone are great! You can browse more at Fleur's instagram www.instagram.com/merveilleux_...
23.06.2025 06:27 β π 1 π 0 π¬ 0 π 0A century before Black Mirror, the French merveilleux-scientifique sci-fi genre was exploring dark thought experiments inspired by the era's science and technology. Really enjoyed working on this @aeon.co essay with Fleur Hopkins-Loferon aeon.co/essays/how-f...
23.06.2025 06:27 β π 2 π 0 π¬ 1 π 0I wrote this for the launch of Psyche's new memoir strand: "The girl was lying on a stretcher, wrapped in a blanket, and he reached for a medallion hanging around her neck, showing to me the two words embossed on it: Sourde-Muette." psyche.co/stories-of-c...
27.05.2025 08:16 β π 12 π 3 π¬ 1 π 2This is an interesting essay on gen AI by the philosopher Andy Clark, of the 'extended mind' idea. A few extracts that struck me: www.nature.com/articles/s41...
22.05.2025 10:00 β π 8 π 2 π¬ 0 π 0These two in the photo have really been on a journey since 'distracted boyfriend'... it seems they broke up, became colleagues, and now are merely sighing at each other www.theguardian.com/money/2025/m...
21.05.2025 13:59 β π 4 π 0 π¬ 0 π 0Since it's Cannes, resharing the time I spent more than 10 minutes clapping for a BBC article www.bbc.com/future/artic...
21.05.2025 06:22 β π 1 π 0 π¬ 0 π 0I did not approve this tweet, you're on probation
13.05.2025 17:17 β π 0 π 0 π¬ 1 π 0