Let 'er rip! Simon James, CC BY-SA

By Siobhan Weare, Lancaster University

A pleasant or disgusting odor is not always just a preference, in some cases an organism's survival depends on it.

Odors can provide important information about food sources, oviposition sites or suitable mates and can also be signs of lethal hazards.  

Recent results released by the National Institute on Drug Abuse finds that use of cigarettes, alcohol, and abuse of prescription pain relievers among teens declined from 2013 while marijuana use rates were stable. 

These 2014 results are part of an overall two-decade trend among the nation's youth. The survey measures drug use and attitudes among eighth, 10th, and 12th graders, is funded by NIDA, and is conducted by researchers at the University of Michigan at Ann Arbor. Studies have found that teens have increased use of nicotine patches, e-cigarettes and energy drinks.

2014: the year crystallography went mainstream. CSIRO, CC BY-SA

By Mark Lorch, University of Hull

’Tis the season for listicles rounding up the stories of the year.

So with, the authority vested in me, here is a selection of six top, bottom and forgotten science stories of 2014.

Hutchinson-Gilford progeria syndrome is a genetic condition in children that is characterized by dramatic, rapid appearance of aging. Affected children typically look normal at birth and in early infancy but grow more slowly than other children and develop characteristic facial appearances seen in some elderly people, along with hair loss, aged-looking skin and a loss of fat under the skin - subcutaneous fat. First described in 1886, it occurs in about 1 in 4 million newborns worldwide.

There is a disease killing honeybee populations around the world but you won't be surprised to find that environmental groups never mention it.

It's called American foulbrood disease and it doesn't get much attention because groups can't use it in fundraising campaigns due to it being completely natural. Science is setting out to cure it just the same, and researchers have found a toxin released by the pathogen that causes American foulbrood disease -- Paenibacillus larvae (P. larvae) -- and developed a lead-based inhibitor against it.

Puffed rice with a bit of poison. Shutterstock

By Andy Meharg, Queen's University Belfast

There are two sides to rice: the grain that feeds half the world – and the primary carcinogenic source of inorganic arsenic in our diet.

Arsenic is a natural occurring element that is ubiquitous in the environment. It is present primarily as inorganic arsenic, which is highly toxic.

It's no secret that war is tough on innocent buildings so it is no surprise that four of six major archaeological sites in Syria have been heavily looted and damaged, according to an analysis of high-resolution satellite images. 

The report analyzes 6 of the 12 sites that Syria has nominated as World Heritage Sites: Dura Europos, Ebla, Hama's Waterwheels, Mari, Raqqa, and Ugarit. Images from 2014 show numerous pits throughout three sites where ancient cities once stood. The pits generally do not appear in similar images from 2011, when the conflict in Syria began. 

Apologizing for the silence of last week, due not so much to Christmas holidays but to my working around the clock to write a grant proposal, I wish to show you today a graph which describes very well the complexities of modern day frontier theoretical calculations. That graph is the collection of some of the Feynman diagrams that have to be calculated in order to evaluate a property of the electron called its "anomalous magnetic moment".

A solid 12 years after most of its audience stopped watching "The West Wing", I decided to start - all 154 episodes. In the interest of transparency, I disclose I skipped two - one was a retrospective and one was nothing but a debate between two characters  that no one could care much about who were running for president to succeed the sitting president played by Martin Sheen. Real debates are boring enough but a fictional one written by one political side is really tedious.