Veteran journalist Merrill Goozner, director of the Integrity in science project at the Center for Science in the Public Interest, discusses his series of articles for sciam.com on the rise of tuberculosis in Russia. Plus we'll test your knowledge of some recent science in the news. Websites mentioned in this episode include www.gooznews.com; www.snipurl.com/gooznerThe text transcript is currently not available. Transcripts are posted about a week after the podcast airs. [More]

As the pharmaceutical giant Pfizer was reminded in May, arriving first has its rewards, but they come with the risks of venturing into uncharted territory. This past spring the Federal Aviation Administration banned pilots and air traffic controllers from taking the company’s popular smoking-cessation aid, varenicline, which is sold in the U.S. as Chantix. Amid 6.5 million prescriptions written worldwide since 2006, the drug had spawned highly publicized reports of acute psychiatric episodes that included seizures, psychosis and suicidal depression. In May the nonprofit Institute for Safe Medication Practices documented 988 such “adverse events,” prompting the aviation ban.The Food and Drug Administration has now added strong warning language to varenicline’s medication guide, and Pfizer is reviewing evidence that might help explain the rare but severe incidents. Although the bad publicity may dampen sales of the drug, observers say that some adverse events are

Can one neuron release more than one neurotransmitter?--Marvin Shrewsbury, Wailuku, Hawaii [More]

A strain of noisy laboratory mice shows all the signs of autism that are used to diagnose human beings, and could help studies of the condition

Fishing bans might protect some reef inhabitants, but they don't seem to help corals bounce back from damage caused by global warming

NASA researchers yesterday released images collected by a new telescope studying high-energy gamma rays. A combined image from 95 hours of the telescope's initial observations showed bursts of gamma rays glowing across the plane of the Milky Way.

Arctic sea ice has shrunk to the second-lowest level since record-keeping began three decades ago, a group of international researchers determined yesterday, a revelation underscoring how rapidly climate change is transforming ecosystems in northern latitudes.

Britain is to formally present its case to the UN to extend its territorial rights around Ascension Island.

In the Aug. 15 issue of Biological Psychiatry, researchers shed new light on one link between stress and illness by describing a mechanism through which stress alters immune function.

The news about antidepressant medications over the past several years has been mixed. The bad news from large multicenter studies such as STAR*D is that current antidepressant medications are effective, but not as effective as one might hope.