Thank you for a wonderful 2013!

It seems like this year has flown by at an amazing speed, yet quite a few things have come to pass in this year.

First and foremost, thanks to all of you, the lookingatnothing weblog has over 30000 views since I started counting three years ago! The number of visitors slowly but steadily increased over the years (by about 10% per year), a trend that will hopefully continue. I also hope this increase coincides with an increased interest in small-angle scattering by the scientific community, and that it may herald a new age for an age-old technique! That would certainly be good news for job security for us all.

Speaking of job security for me, I will find out next year (spring) if I can get a permanent contract at my current institute or not. If not, I’ll be employed until October, so expect plenty of more posts!

Some of the most fun posts I enjoyed writing were the ones reviewing the work of others. This year has seen the release of some interesting progress on data read-in and inter-instrument calibration, and the review of a lifetime brought insight of use to us all.

Some of you may also remember my aim at the start of the year to publish 7 papers. Alas, that has not come to pass, but a modest 4 makes it my top year in any case (with one having been accepted recently about the analysis of Mg-Zn precipitates in a Mg-alloy, hopefully to be published within what remains of the year).

As for the Ultra-SAXS instrument construction, that has come a long way as well. If it weren’t for the frequent breakdowns of the generator, I am sure we would have been measuring samples already. As it is, that achievement will hopefully be attained in 2014, after which I will be discussing it in much detail! There are still a considerable number of improvements to be made, which is highly dependent on whether or not some budget becomes available.

Next year will be another interesting year which may have some decision points on the future in it. I do hope it will be full of beautiful SAXSy things, and I am looking forward to writing about them!

I wish all of you the best in 2014, with many fun times in science!