Newsweek brought in their June 16 issue a picture of Tennessee Titans running back Eddie George - doing yoga. And he’s not alone, even in the macho club called NFL. Writer John Capouya goes on to explore why American men are starting to hit the mats for a new athletic challenge. I found this an interesting introductory read for the masses, demystifying some of the common notions about meditation and all that stuff …

Yeah, yeah - I know. I haven’t written anything in a while, due to a wonderful week spent traveling in Central Europe (Switzerland and Germany to be precise). As part of my culinary travels, I have consumed tons of delicious food, tasted white wines and topped it all off with some nice beers. Among other things, I learned that Germany’s BASF is not only one of the world’s largest chemical companies - no, it is also the largest wine merchant in Germany, purchasing more wines than anybody else for their large underground storage facilities. I guess trading oil contracts and dealing with fine wines is not that different at all.

Anyway, you’ll get to hear about it on Jennifer’s SkinnyChef website… (next week)

Today’s Chemist at Work writer Randall Willis explored in one of the magazine’s recent issues the dangers of pathogenic microbes: in the summer’s heat, the hospital can be a picnic away. Randall gives a brief overview, then launches into a variety of common pathogens. Read about Food Fears …

New York Magazine brought in their June 9 issue a feature story on New Yorkers turning to self-medication, mixing everything from Ambien to Zoloft - including the the drugs Paxil, Prozac, Percocet, Valium, Viagra and Vicodin.

“Using prescription drugs to work a little harder, sleep a little better, relax a little faster, has become a given in the city’s mainstream. A friend of mine coined the term cosmetic psychopharmacology…”

As a medicinal chemist, I can not approve of this. New York Magazine’s writer Ariel Levy makes it sound like it is ok to pop pills - according to his selection of quotes. People think it’s cool to self-adjust your moods, but I contend that there is a reason these prescription drugs aren’t OTC (over-the-counter). Besides possible drug-drug interactions in these pill cocktails, there is always the specter of addiction. And last not least, anybody that starts messing with the natural balance of their brain chemicals is certainly going to harvest one thing: a life-long alteration of your capacity to experiencing emotions. There is no going back to how it was before you started self-medicating. Read more…

Finally, after weeks of patient preparation, we have launched a new website, called SkinnyChef.com. It is entirely Jennifer’s venture, paralleling her start at New York City’s Institute of Culinary Education. Her site features material from the interface of cooking, wine, traveling and yoga, and includes the much heralded Jenn’s Kitchen Diary. What’s more, the site has many yummy recipes and a handy wine list (in case you’ll need some suggestions for your next party) - all downloadable as pdfs! Check it out…

Knowing Carnegie-Mellon’s students, they are always tinkering with stuff: In this case, programming commercially available SONY Aibo robots to play soccer. In past month’s RoboCup American Open, CMU’s team beat the runner up 9-0.

But this is artificial life on the frontier, and “people just don’t really appreciate how hard this is,” says Jim Bruce, a third-year graduate student at Carnegie Mellon University here and a four-year RoboCup veteran with world titles in his trophy case. “People always ask why the dogs are so slow, but it took years to get them to walk as fast as they do.” Read more…

In the same issue, Fortune Magazine describes Bayer’s and GSK’s plans to unseat the famed “Pfizer riser”. The duo aims to raise the, er, consciousness of millions of suffering men, by reaching out to the key decision makers: spouses. I found this an interesting account of the marketing activities surrounding the PDE-5 field. Read more …

After catching up with my reading list this weekend, I have to point you to a few articles of interest: First, David Stipp visits Genentech and reviews why their stock has really taken off (nothing new for the informed medchemist) and why their CEO is not focused on producing blockbuster drugs (yeah, right). The author makes the point that Genentech has deliberately not become like everyone else in big pharma — I guess it’s easy to make a virtue out of it if your company just didn’t have the revenues to do anything but staying small and lean. Read how Genentech Got It …