We have the perfect Friday story for you: is drinking wine good for your heart? Some research says yes; other research says maybe not so much. Today in The Conversation Canada, we explore the contradictory science. Adrian Baranchuk, Bryce Alexander and Sohaib Haseeb of Queen’s University explain scientific interest in the potential health benefits of wine first surfaced in the 1970s. “How does the average drinker know what to believe?” the authors ask. “And how much wine is safe?” Read on to find out!

If your teenagers are taking on a part-time job while going to school, that’s a good thing. Marc-David L. Seidel and Dennis Ma of the University of British Columbia have teamed up with Marjan Houshmand of the University of Hawaii to look at the research around high school students who work. “The benefits are both short-term and long-term,” they write.

I’ve never seen the made-in-Canada movie “The Witch” because horror flicks aren’t my thing, but I’m tempted to watch it after reading Melissa J. Gismondi’s article. The lecturer on women, gender and sexuality at the University of Virginia says it’s the most historically accurate horror movie ever made because of its portrayal of women being persecuted by the Puritans in 17th century America.

And finally, we have another in our popular series of stories that look at the use of science in popular culture. Christopher Wiebe, the Canada Research Chair in Quantum Materials Discovery at the University of Winnipeg, looks at Star Trek and how close to reality the show is. “While we may not be teleporting people from starships to a planet’s surface anytime soon, we are getting closer to developing other tools essential for future space travel endeavours,” writes Prof. Wiebe.

It’s Friday. Open a bottle of red and get ready for the weekend….