Over at my other gig at the Pharma & Healthcare section of Forbes.com, I’ve been covering a few stories of new drugs and improvements on old drugs. Although I’m focusing on natural products like vancomycin and semi-synthetics like lurbinectedin, I’ve been thinking a bit about the stories behind the discoveries of all drugs. Part of my thinking has been...

I’ve have more later but I just learned some very sad news from Antony Williams: Drexel University chemist, Jean-Claude Bradley, passed away yesterday. Antony has some personal reflections of his dear friend at his site but here is the official letter from Drexel: Dear Members of the Drexel University Community, It is with deep sadness that I inform...

I’m impressed by the safety goggles and the nitrile gloves. But, um, the reptilian chemist is wearing no pants or protective footwear. It’s the no pants that really troubles me. (Credit: University of Florida, Department of Chemistry) Well, it’s that time of the academic year to dust off my University of Florida doctoral regalia for this weekend’s commencement...

What a fantastic surprise this morning on the 115th anniversary of Percy Julian’s birth:   Screenshot of Google Doodle on 11 April 2014 features chemist, Percy Julian. (Credit: Google)   I’m beside myself with joy to see this pioneering chemist be recognized by the most prominent search engine in the world. I don’t know where to begin about Julian but...

Over where I also write at Forbes.com, Matthew Herper, Senior Editor for Pharma and Healthcare, reported on GlaxoSmithKline’s NEJM clinical trial of darapladib in coronary artery disease. The drug had been developed as a small molecule, orally-formulated, subnanomolar inhibitor of lipoprotein-associated phospholipase A2. Lp-PLA2 is associated with apolipoprotein...

Since the beginning of the year, I’ve been watching Colorado’s burgeoning legal marijuana economy both as a natural products pharmacologist and science and health journalist and writing professor. And while the Colorado and Washington experiments are interesting to observe from afar, I’m amazed, but not surprised, by how much remains the same when it...