A new study shows that alcohol consumption of individuals appears to increase with the number of friends in their drinking group.

Most alcohol use among young people occurs in a social context, and peer substance use has long been established as an important predictor of alcohol and other substance use among youngsters. Past research suggests that the mere presence of others seems to have an effect on drinking behaviour, but most of those studies relied on data gathered from experiments performed in artificial laboratory settings or from surveys conducted after drinking sessions have ended, which are notoriously inaccurate.

A recent study found that people without three risk factors by age 45 were diagnosed with heart failure 11 to 13 years later, on average, than people who had those risk factors.

Heart failure, a chronic condition in which the heart cannot pump enough blood to meet the body's needs, can be pushed off by not developing obesity, hypertension and diabetes, the researchers found.  People who had only one or two of the risk factors, but not all three, developed heart failure an average of three to 11 years earlier than people with none of the risk factors. 

Two recent studies failed to find a connection between testosterone therapy in men and heart problems, contradicting claims that prompted the U.S. Food and Drug Administration to investigate its safety.

The new studies include a meta-analysis of data from 29 studies involving more than 120,000 men and an observational study from a Wisconsin health system. Since people who are anti-science always assume researchers are for sale if the conclusion is not criticizing medicine, it is noted early on that neither study had any industry funding.

Gene expression, the process by which our DNA provides the recipe used to direct the synthesis of proteins and other molecules, is how we develop and survive.

To-date, science has made breathtaking progress, studying one single gene at a time, but a new approach developed by Harvard geneticist George Church, Ph.D., can help uncover how tandem gene circuits dictate life processes, such as the healthy development of tissue or the triggering of a particular disease, and can also be used for directing precision stem cell differentiation for regenerative medicine and growing organ transplants.

Walmart, Costco and other 'big box stores' or facilities like hospitals could use a fuel cell that runs off the natural gas that already flows in pipelines below city streets and eliminate the electricity 'middle man', which is good for the environment. 

Instead of drawing electricity from the power grid, that often ends up being converted from coal, natural gas or nuclear power, facilities could instead go direct and use natural gas-powered solid oxide fuel cells. It would  lower their electric costs, increase power reliability and reduce greenhouse gas emissions, according to a cost-benefit analysis.

The earliest known record of the genus Homo dates to between 2.8 and 2.75 million years ago, according to an international team.