Free access to New Scientist's 5 finest long reads for 2022

Free access to New Scientist's 5 finest long reads for 2022

As the year comes to an end, our editors have chosen the greatest New Scientist pieces of 2022, which you may read for free until January 1st.

Some of this year's most well-known pieces have tackled huge physics questions, spoken to readers about challenges they experience in their daily lives, or been exclusive tales discovered by New Scientist writers. 

As a Christmas gift, we've compiled a collection of our finest topical pieces on the most recent ageing research and clues to brand new physics. These in-depth pieces are normally only available to paying customers, but from December 25 through the end of the year, they are free to read. Here are some of the greatest and why you should choose them.

1. A long-term diet that can add years to your life.

It may appear clear that what you eat can help you live longer. We all know that eating too much processed food, red meat, and fat may contribute to premature mortality, yet this paper ignores that common sense. Instead, it presents the most recent data suggesting that those who avoid the traditional Western diet can live for several decades longer if they adhere to it. But this isn't some fad diet. This article is intriguing since it contains evidence from decades of biological study on nutrition and aging, including data from clinical trials, epidemiological studies, and centenarian studies.

The piece is not just thorough and carries a fair dose of New Scientist skepticism, but it is also a true news item that you should read since it offers a plethora of detail on what the new longevity diet truly comprises. It's no surprise that it was our most popular piece of the year.

2. Exciting new data from the Large Hadron Collider

You've probably heard about the oddities in the LHCb experiment at CERN's Large Hadron Collider. Exciting clues of new physics were hinted at in 2021, but anyone holding their breath had to wait a long time. Earlier this year, New Scientist exclusively released new LHCb experiment data that not only demonstrated that the anomalies were becoming greater, but also suggested at a new force-bearing particle that might explain the strange patterns detected in known matter particles.

In the long run, this might allow physicists to eventually arrive at a grand unified theory demonstrating that all three of nature's four fundamental forces are expressions of the same force. These findings, if validated, will alter our understanding of the universe as we know it. In this article, Harry Cliff, a particle physicist at the LHCb at the University of Cambridge, outlines what might be one of the year's, if not the decade's, most significant findings.

3. A greater knowledge of insomnia and how it might be treated.

If you're reading this on your phone late at night when the rest of the world sleeps, you're not alone. Insomnia affects around 10% of the population, and it can have a significant influence on daily living. The research findings on this illness are very few. Recent research on the neurological and psychological mechanisms underlying insomnia, on the other hand, is finally yielding vital insights into how insomnia might be treated. As explained in this article, insomnia is now a treatable condition. If you're reading this because you can't sleep, we hope it will assist you in falling asleep in the best way possible.

4. A bold attempt to redesign the physique to take into account consciousness.

It's a story that will draw you into one of the most profound and complex questions of all: what is the place of consciousness in understanding the universe? When physicists try to explain the universe and everything in it, they seek an objective "view from nowhere" that has nothing to do with the subjective views of observers. But the truth is that there is no such thing. We know, for example, from our efforts to understand quantum theory and time, that the role of the observer cannot be ignored. 

That is why some brave souls are trying to reformulate physics to include subjective experience as a physical component of the world. These ideas can be somewhat confusing, ranging from the idea that consciousness is an intrinsic property of matter to a new cosmology based on events and their relationships rather than objects in space and time. However, we would like to believe that this article is as thought-provoking and entertaining as it is surprising.

These concepts, which range from the notion that consciousness is an essential characteristic of matter to a new cosmology centered on events and their interactions rather than things in space and time, can be quite perplexing. However, we hope that this essay is as thought-provoking, interesting, and unexpected as it is startling.

5. Artificial intelligence reveals the mysteries of ancient cuneiform inscriptions

With numerous anniversaries in Egyptology this year, scholars working on ancient Egyptian texts have been in the limelight, but considerably less attention has been devoted to scientists studying the Sumerians and Babylonians, who wrote in the cuneiform system. The enthralling symbols on clay tablets that comprise the world's earliest written language are notoriously difficult to read. For the first time, artificial intelligence is being used to crack the cuneiform code, unleashing the treasures written therein. This fascinating story travels behind the scenes at London's British Museum, providing a unique glimpse at technology in action as AI is used to piece together the biggest library of antiquity's small bits.

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