New Year's Day, a time to reminisce about the past year, perhaps to analyze its ups and downs, and in the blogosphere: to link to one's "Best of" posts for all of those who missed them.

What is the unusual source of high-energy cosmic rays that has been discovered within 3000 light years of the Sun?

Is there any limit to the creative potential of LEGOS?

Brian Greene, everyone's favorite string theorist popularizer (well, except to those who really hate string theory), wrote an excellent Op-Ed in the New York Times last week explaining -- in crystal-clear language -- what scientists hope to find now that the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) is up and running.

Some time in sixth grade a well-meaning librarian shoved me out of the Scifi/Horror aisle and into the dreaded youthbook (Jugendbuch) section, an act that had unintended consequences. The books in that aisle were neatly marked with dots, the more dots the higher the recommended age.

In addition to the below post on gene therapy, keep a watch out for a review paper on the topic (by yours truly) that was just accepted into Hearing Research.

I've been saving this picture for more than a year, not showing it to anyone or posting it anywhere online, not wanting to break the embargo:

Three good reasons why you should be writing something, somewhere on the Web: