For Wendy Schmidt, maintaining personal equilibrium also means paying attention to the balance of life systems around us. “Our personal health is linked to environmental health,” she says. “To be good citizens we have to think about that relationship.” Schmidt, together with her husband, Eric, founded the Schmidt Ocean Institute (SOI), as well as the Schmidt Family Foundation, over which she presides. Her work brings her to many corners of the globe, from Nantucket to Haiti to Hamburg. Most recently she visite…

For the past 16 years, Stewart Kohl has ridden the Pan-Mass Challenge (PMC), an arduous 190-mile bike route that traverses the flexing arm of Cape Cod, Mass., to raise money for cancer research at Boston’s Dana-Farber Cancer Institute.
“It’s an incredibly powerful event,” says Kohl, the Cleveland-based co-CEO of The Riverside Company, a private equity firm with more than $3 billion in assets.
While the event offers several routes with mileage varying from 26 to 192, Kohl opts for the longest one. He rides se…

The American tourist had rented a moped in Greece and was having a grand time, until he careened around a corner and woke up in a local hospital. An executive had come to the United States for a procedure at the Mayo Clinic and needed secure transport with round-the-clock medical care while he traveled home to Dubai. Parents learned that their college-aged son had been in an accident while traveling in Mexico during spring break. Fortunately, all of these people had one thing in common: a membership with AirMe…

Northern Virginia’s Salamander Resort & Spa opens with a focus on well-being, from country pursuits to cozy spa treatments and healthful cuisine.
In the historic horse country and foothills of the Blue Ridge Mountains, an hour outside of metropolitan Washington, D.C., the Salamander Resort & Spa’s 340 picturesque acres offer a modern approach to wellness that builds on the best traditions of European spa retreats. This past August, Salamander’s founder and CEO, Sheila Johnson, swung open the paddock g…

Support the top medical institutions and health initiatives through the first quarter of 2014’s best vents. 
Johns Hopkins Medicine What:  For the first time, Johns Hopkins will hold its popular Dean’s Symposium both in Palm Beach and on Florida’s Gulf Coast. Money raised during the events will benefit medical education scholarships, scientific research, and patient care. When: Jan. 21, 2014, 8:30 am to 11:30 am Where: The Ritz-Carlton Gulf Resort, 2600 Tiburon Drive, Naples, Fla., 239.593.2000, jh…

From the screams of the operating theater and the race for patents to the death of a pop star and the current hope for a surprising drug that could mitigate side effects, the story of anesthesia has been anything but sedate.
Those who gathered in the operating theater on October 16, 1846, at Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH) witnessed the closest thing to a miracle that rational men of medicine ever see. The venue was located far from the patient wards, so those in residence could not hear the anguished wa…

Their names grace jars of sauces, covers of cookbooks, and of course, the marquees of their four-star dining establishments. But so far, the nation’s master chefs have not lent their monikers to actual vegetables. That could change, however, with the help of one seed scientist at Cornell University. Michael Mazourek, PhD, assistant professor of Plant Breeding and Genetics, has been meeting with chefs and asking them to describe their dream produce, such as tomatoes with rougher skin, so knives do not slip duri…

Experience a wellness retreat like no other at the new Jiva Grande Spa at the Vivanta by Taj in Bekal, Kerala. The resort sprawls across 26 acres along the southwest coast of India with 71 rooms and villas, many with private plunge pools or terraces that overlook the Arabian Sea and the lush tropical grounds.
The resort’s gem is the 165,000-square–foot spa, which capitalizes on the region’s history as the birthplace of Ayurvedic medicine. Guests can choose from an incredibly creative menu that spans everythin…

For Robert Young, whose family has farmed the same acreage in Sonoma County’s Alexander Valley for five generations, one of the highlights of agricultural life was apparently lighting his burn pile—a large heap of dried cuttings that, once ignited, burned all day, leaving only a smoldering expanse of ash. Once the farm became a vineyard property, now known as the Robert Young Estate Winery, the patch of land that provided the mise-en-scène for Young’s bonfires proved so conducive to growing Cabernet Sauvignon …

The French luxury-goods house Hermès, with roots as a saddlemaker that date back more than century, is applying its leather craft to a set of carbon-fiber bicycles. Released this month in select boutiques, le Flâneur d’Hermès Leisure ($10,400) is lightweight and durable and has eight gears. The frame was hand-built in the Time bicycle factory near Lyon, France, and comes in charcoal, ivory, or red; leather accents appear at the handlebar grips, seat, and carry handles. Hermès plans to unveil a made-to-order pe…