":The major household products manufacturer Procter & Gamble recently sought support from an international medical society, which it sponsors, asking the group to get involved in a regulatory hearing assessing the company's experimental testosterone patch." See Ray Moynihan's article in the BMJ.

Designer minds, or designer genitalia? According to The New York Times style section, you can have both. See "High for the Holidays" and "The Most Private of Makeovers."

What did Merck know about the risks of Vioxx and when did they know it? The New York Times suggests that Merck knew a lot more than it is now admitting. See "Despite Warnings, Drug Giant Took Long Path to Vioxx Recall."

"Despite a diet stuffed with cream, butter, cheese and meat, just 10 per cent of French adults are obese, compared with our 22 per cent, and America's colossal 33 per cent. The French live longer too, and have lower death rates from coronary heart disease - in spite of those artery-clogging feasts of cholesterol and saturated fat. This curious observation, dubbed 'the French paradox', has baffled scientists for more than a decade. And it leaves us diet-obsessed Brits smarting."

See Mimi Spencer's "Let Them Eat Cake" in The Observer.