Obesity is big business and as a result, so are bariatric surgeries. They are a popular fail safe for people who believe they lack the mental resolve to eat less but is it really the most cost effective way to treat obesity now that health care is government controlled? 

Writing in both BMJ and JAMA, David Arterburn, MD, MPH, weighs the evidence on the benefits and risks of the various types of this surgery.

"It's critical that we find effective—and cost-effective—ways to treat severe obesity," said Dr. Arterburn, an associate investigator at Group Health Research Institute, a Group Health physician, and an affiliate associate professor of medicine at the University of Washington School of Medicine.

Scholars from Tufts University, Harvard University and Boston Children's Hospital are calling for the implementation of taxes and subsidies to improve dietary quality in the United States.  

Science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) fields used to be considered the domain of white men, especially in academia, and that has changed, but universities are criticized because of the pace of change - researchers with tenure cannot just be fired and replaced.

There is a sure-fire way to lose weight; if you eat two cheeseburgers at McDonald's, eat one. 

You don't need to read any books, slow cook, give up gluten, give up dairy, fats, carbs or booze; those can all help in the short term, because you are shocking your body and it mobilizes to deal with that, but over the long term just eat less. All diets work if you stick to them.

A new study has again affirmed what every weight loss study done by people not selling you something has found; weight loss differences between popular diets are minimal and likely of little importance to those wanting to lose weight. Staying on the diet is the most important thing - behavioral support and exercise enhance the weight loss but the eating less matters most.

Here are four things I did not expect to happen to me on Wednesday August 13: 

1) Waking up next to Scarlett Johansson 
2) Bowling 300 with an Ikea bag over my head 
3) Finding a bassoon in my eye 
4) Getting invited to be on the Dr. Oz Show to talk about a weed killer. 

The first three are admittedly unlikely, but the fourth really struck me as especially odd.

Why on earth would Dr. Oz want to talk to me? It's not like we travel in the same socioeconomic circles. He has a 400 room mansion with an unobstructed view of lower Manhattan, while I live in a refrigerator crate under the FDR Drive. I doubt we've ever been invited to the same party. 

By Patrik Jones, Imperial College London

Converting renewable energy into electricity is one thing; converting it into fuel is quite another. The vast majority of global energy demand is for fuel, and a renewable source could help us heat our houses and travel efficiently long into the future. It might even mean we could avoid the conflicts that will arise while competing for the last remaining fossil fuels.

Jennifer Lawrence at the 83rd Academy Awards. CC BY-SA 2.0

By Emma Rees, University of Chester

Researchers have engineered the bacteria E. coli to generate renewable propane, which would open a path to a cleaner alternative to fossil fuels.

Propane is an appealing source of cleaner fuel because it has an existing global market. It is already produced as a by-product during natural gas processing and petroleum refining, but both are finite resources. In its current form it makes up the bulk of LPG (liquid petroleum gas), which is used in many applications, from central heating to camping stoves and conventional motor vehicles.

Though to Western women, Muslim women in the Mid-East and Asia seem oppressed because they have no choice in wearing a hijab, the Islamic head- and body-cover common in Muslim culture, studies have shown that Muslim women have a more positive body image.

Psychologists using a wider range of body image measures have found that British Muslim women who wear a hijab generally have more positive body image, are less reliant on media messages about beauty ideals, and place less importance on appearance than those who do not wear a hijab. These effects appear to be driven by use of a hijab specifically, rather than religiosity. 

It has generally been believed that more attractive men had better semen quality.