Happy Thanksgiving! November 27, 2008

Wishing everyone a Happy Thanksgiving!

Watching the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade with my family…looking forward to tasty turkey, mashed potatoes, stuffing, and cranberry sauce!

Anyone else watching the parade?  The American public just got RickRolled!!!!!

Okay, back to my post, I just couldn’t believe that happened.

Just wanted to contemplate what I’m thankful for.

Thankful for an amazing family.  Amazing boyfriend and friends.  A rewarding job where I’m always learning and growing.  My good health.  Not trying to brag…just trying to remind myself that when things aren’t going quite right, I just need to remind myself how good I have it.

Happy Thanksgiving!  What are you thankful for?

Materials Science followup November 25, 2008

I guess I didn’t really talk about why I find my field so awesome.  I realized that’s a bit weird to just say, so I think I’ll tell a story.

My folks were in town for a long weekend, and we were going on some tours at MIT.  One of the tours we went on was at the Institute for Soldier Nanotechnology.  This is an MIT affiliated research facility that is also closely connected to a few major companies as well as the U.S. Military.  At any rate, as we were taking the tour, we were shown all sorts of cool technologies and told about amazing discoveries and possibilities.  They have a whole list of ideas that they’re focusing on.  Both at this facility and at many different materials research groups, there is a large focus on creating lighter weight materials that can be functionalized to do certain things, such as protect from chemicals, act as waterproofing, defend against puncture, and many other properties.  Materials can be developed that are stronger, harder, more thermally resistant, or other beneficial properties.

There is also a move towards medical materials and devices that are extremely helpful in the battlefield, but can eventually be transitioned to be used by local EMTs and emergency room doctors.  In fact, one story I heard there that really managed to wow my mother (and pretty much everyone else there, including me!) was about a boy who was born missing some of the bones of his ribs.  Materials scientists and biologists are working to help him and others like him to live more normal lives.  As noted in this CNN/TIME article (in the second to last paragraph) Robert “Langer is using tailor-made polymers to build tiny scaffolds that can then be seeded with skin, cartilage, liver or other cells. The idea is to provide a temporary structure that cells can colonize and upon which they can eventually grow into a functioning organ — at which point the scaffold dissolves away”.   How cool is that?  They’re building new bones for this kid!

To learn more about Materials Science, you can check this page out.  I actually went to see the exhibit that this site is for when it was nearby.  And I even wore one of the geeky materials shirts I got from my department.  But it was cool to see all the cool stuff there, and I recognized the names on some of the presentations…my professors were cited in many of the displays! This site is pretty good because it has a general overview, but also has plenty of links to other sources of information.

If you’d like to learn more about nanomaterials and other nano-things, I  recommend checking out the website for the National Nanotechnology Initiative.

Well, that’s enough science for now.  While you’re being awed by how cool science is, you should also probably check out TIME’s Best Inventions of 2008.  Many of the inventions were made possible by advancements in science and engineering!

And yes, I love material science! November 18, 2008

I don’t usually touch on my academic background in the blog.  I tend to talk more about personal finance, with a bit of food and Boston talk thrown in.  And I guess general musings about life after graduation.  But today I’d like to talk about Materials Science and Engineering.

First off, I studied Materials Science and Engineering at MIT.  I originally was going to major in Chemistry or Chemical Engineering, but the more I looked at the majors, the more I realized Materials Science and Engineering was the place for me.  It’s a great combination of Chemistry, Chemical Engineering, Mechanical Engineering, Aero/Astro, and really, lots of science and engineering majors.

I think I often find myself urging others to pursue Materials Science and Engineering, or at least science/engineering in general.  And my new job gives me plenty of ways to share my love of science, engineering, and my scientific background with others.  I went back to MIT for their Career Fair and talked to students about my job and what sort of work I do.  And I went to an event for women in engineering, where high school girls interested in science and engineering came together and learned about future career opportunities.  I really like telling people about all the cool things that you can do as an engineer or scientist.  Maybe that makes me a geek!

So, I think I’ll post every once in a while about materials and such.  It’s something I’m really interested in!  And I’d also like to mention that, while I’m not a career adviser or anything, if you have any questions about college/careers in science/engineering, let me know.  I know it sounds lame, but I really like helping people.  And so if there’s a student who wants to know more about colleges or majors, I’d be happy to help.

So, stay tuned for more posts, likely with more reasons for why I love materials!

p.s.  A really cool resource out there is OpenCourseWare, a program through MIT where material from classes taught at MIT is posted for anyone to read/watch/listen to for free.  Check it out!  And since I’m promoting Materials this week, you should definitely look at the courses listed under that major. (especially 3.091, an extremely popular class at MIT.  The professor, Donald Sadoway, is an exceptional scientist and lecturer, and the class is a good start on the topic).

Blogoversary update: trends and friends November 15, 2008

My last post about my Blogoversary was mostly recapping what I’ve been up to since I started blogging.  And I promised that I’d discuss more about what sort of trends I’ve noticed in my blogging, and where most of my referrals are coming from.

Time for a bit of “link love”!

Blogs that send me a lot of traffic:

Well-Heeled, with a mission:  a pretty cool 20-something persona finance blog.  I am lucky enough to be on her blogroll, and since her blog is pretty popular, I luck out with people finding me through her.

Free Money Finance:  a blog with a lot of readers as well, with plenty of posts.  I got a big boost in visitors after I was linked to as a post of the week.  I’m also on the blogroll there, so I’m guessing that I get a bit of residual help there.

Universal Hub:  a Boston-area blog that often links to area bloggers. My post about my first time pumping gas was featured in a post, so I got a heck of a lot of traffic those next few days.

Small Budget, Big Style:  another 20-something pf blogger who has some great posts.  I guess this again is another case of residual linkage from a popular blog.

The Tough Broad:  a fellow New Englander (New Englandite?  New English?) young female blogger working her way out of debt (like me!) who also links to me in her blogroll.

I also get referrals from fellow personal finance 20/30-something bloggers Penny, MoneyMaus, and ShtinkyKat.

There are plenty of other blogs that link to me, but looking at the stats that WordPress shows me, these are some of my top referrers.

As for my top posts:

How often should I contribute to my Roth IRA?:

My top post seems to be the top post for a few reasons.  1.  It was linked to by Free Money Finance (as mentioned above) and 2. It’s a very common question.

I got laid off…now what?:

Sadly, this post has been getting more and more popular with this darn economy of ours.  But hopefully the post has been useful, and anyone who has more questions about that transition, let me know, I’ve got a whole handful of thoughts and ideas about it!

As for the searches that bring people to my blog:

I can sort the searches into a few different categories:

PF related:  ING, student loans, 401k, IRAs, flexible spending accounts, diversification, etc.

Other:  Nicaragua (from my travel recap), haircuts (from a few haircut posts, though a lot of people look for “graduated haircuts”, and so mistakenly show up here), life after college, and a few for couch to 5k and other fitness searches (and sadly, my high hopes for sticking to an exercise plan have completely failed).

So far, it has been great blogging.  I’ve learned a lot and shared a lot as well.  I encourage you to check out my blogroll (which I think might need some editing), and let me know what you hope to see here!