Why Waking Up Earlier Isn’t Necessarily Better

A favorite trope of sleep research is to divide the entire human population into two cute, feathered categories: early birds (also called larks) and night owls. Often, these studies link people’s natural sleep patterns—called their chronotype—with some waking behavior or personality trait.

It doesn’t take long to see which team more often comes out on top. (Hint: …

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What’s the Point of PCR Tests Anymore-

If you had COVID-19 symptoms in 2020, you probably would have masked up and braved a visit to a laboratory, doctor’s office, or clinic to get a polymerase chain reaction (PCR) test. A health care worker would have shoved a swab up your nose, and then you would have waited a day or two, if not more, to get your results.

Now, you’d likely use an at-home test, which spits out res…

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With NASA’s Orion Abort-System Test, Americans Just Took a Small (and Very Big) Step Closer to the Moon

It was a modest little rocket scheduled to make a modest little flight, and yet an awful lot of people showed up at Cape Canaveral before dawn this morning to watch it happen. They had good reason to be there. With the flight, America’s planned return to the moon by 2024 moved a small but critical step closer.

Easily the most harrowing part of the next lunar flight will be the first…

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You Can Now Get a COVID-19 Vaccine in China

Li Shurui didn’t hesitate. Faced with putting his life on hold indefinitely or the risk of catching COVID-19 by returning to university in the U.K., the 22-year-old business student decided to roll up his sleeve and receive an experimental coronavirus vaccine.

Two injections of CoronaVac made by SinoVac (otherwise known as Beijing Kexing Bioproducts) cost 2,000 rmb ($300) at the pri…

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Why TIME Is Launching a New Newsletter on the Metaverse

A version of this article was published in TIME’s newsletter Into the Metaverse. Subscribe for a weekly guide to the future of the Internet.

It’s hard to go online these days without seeing someone yelling about the metaverse, whether in rapture or derision. Depending on whom you ask, it’s the inevitable future of the Internet or a billionaire’s fligh…

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Why Deplatforming Trump and Parler Won’t Fix Long-Term Damage

If democracy is a river, or a forest, or a pristine meadow, then social media platforms are a factory spewing toxic pollutants into it. Even if you block the new effluent, the pollution that has already escaped won’t just go away. It needs to be cleaned up.

That’s the analogy used by Whitney Phillips, one of the world’s leading experts on the rise of the far right online…

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Why Willie Mays Still Matters

Willie Mays represents so much, for so many.

He brought a certain joy and whimsy to the game of baseball, which during Mays’ heyday in the mid-20th century was the dominant sport in America. He was a true sports superstar, embraced by all swaths of America, at a time when many Black Americans still suffered under the awful indignities of Jim Crow.

And as revealed in Say He…

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The Beijing Opening Ceremony Leaned Into Politics

In the run-up to the 2022 Winter Olympics in Beijing, China has insisted on keeping politics and sports separate. When the U.S. and allies announced a diplomatic boycott of the Games, China said the Olympics should not be used as “a stage for political posturing and manipulation.”

But as the Games formally kicked off on Friday, it was clear that Chinese officials were not pla…

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India’s Zee pops 10% on report the $10 billion merger with Sony is being revived

The deal, announced more than two years ago, was perceived as crucial for the survival of the companies in a highly competitive market.Bloomberg | Bloomberg | Getty Images

Shares of India's Zee Entertainment jumped more than 10% on Tuesday after a report that its $10 billion merger with Japanese tech giant Sony could be revived.

The Economic Times, an Indian news publication, reported…

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Judge rejects AstraZeneca’s challenge to Medicare drug price negotiations

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Activists protest the price of prescription drug costs in front of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services building in Washington, D.C., on Oct. 6, 2022.Anna Moneymaker | Getty Images

A federal judge on Friday rejected Astra…

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