Posted on January 3, 2012  Comments (0)

Here I include a list of some of the most popular posts from my blog in the last year. I hope you enjoy them. Only one post was written in 2011. Many of my older posts are consistently popular, while some have huge spikes for a day or two when they are popular on some social site (Reddit, Facebook, Twitter, Google+…). For posts that get huge spikes it isn’t uncommon for that pattern to repeat occasionally. I must have been doing something right in 2008 (based on how many of my popular post are from 2008). I’ll try to repeat that in 2012.

• Bacteriophages: The Most Common Life-Like Form on Earth (2008)
• Encouraging Curiosity in Kids – my only 2011 post included in this list (and one I am proud of, actually)

My mom with a group of Malaysia kids apparently intent on learning something. I am there, but not visible in this photo. Photo by my father.

• Science Toys You Can Make With Your Kids (2005)
• Monitor-Merrimac Memorial Bridge and Underwater Tunnel (2008) – which is also currently experiencing one of those huge spikes driven by somewhere on facebook
• Top Countries for Science and Math Education: Finland, Hong Kong and Kore (2010)
• Understanding the Evolution of Human Beings by Country (2008)
• Albert Einstein, Marylin Monroe Hybrid Image (2009)
• Loan Forgiveness Program for Engineering Students – sadly the loan forgiveness program was not funded. A smart country would agree to fund it for students that agree to work in their country for say 5 years. The reverse brain drain is happening and will increase (but the USA still attracts so many experts that we gain overall, but in the 1970’s those we lost to other countries was insignificant). It is no longer insignificant and, I believe it will continue to grow.
• S&P 500 CEO’s: Engineers Stay at the Top (2009) – actually an older years post is more popular (but really shouldn’t be – I would wager this is due to a search engine failure to deliver the most useful page)
• CERN Pressure Test Failure (2007), my guess is this is actually a search fault, that lots of people find when wanting to learn about various things at CERN (Higgs boson etc.).
• The Engineer That Made Your Cat a Photographer (2007)
• Massive Gorilla Population Found in the Congo (2008)
• Ministry of Silly Walks (2005) – I didn’t just include a list of the posts with the most views, I applied some editorial judgement to include some more interesting posts and fun ones (like this one) that are surprisingly popular (even if they are not quite at the top of the list).

Related: Some of my favorite Curious Cat Science and Engineering Blog posts (maybe a few of these can make it to the most popular post for 2012)