I was riding the T this weekend in Boston, and had that quintessential mass transit experience. Even though the car was packed it was silent, with everyone minding their own business. The train inexplicably screeched to a halt in the middle of the tunnel (the Green line always screeches).

As our wait turned into minutes, a boy started asking mom questions. When he asked what building we were under now, a stranger got into the guessing game. Several in the car started eavesdropping on this small diversion, and then joining in to suggest landmarks on the streets above, each more obscure than the next.

It always seems special and rare to have a great exchange with complete strangers.

Is it too early for science story of the year nominations? This one seems to have it all: rats tripping on acid, the seedy world of underground chemists in Europe, and a spiraling number of murder victims.

...well, maybe they are murder victims. It's hard to say.

This is the story of David Nichols, who studies the way psychedelics act in the brains of rats. One side effect of Dr. Nichols's published findings is that black market labs decipher the recipes for "cheap and marginally legal recreational drugs." Some of these recipes have been involved in deaths.