A fond farewell
Happy New Year! We hope you have enjoyed experiencing the World Year of Physics through the eyes of the Quantum Diarists. The highs and lows of 2005 included big discoveries, new jobs, new babies, funding cuts, loss of old friends, and public attacks on science. In their final posts, many diarists have taken the opportunity to reflect on the year past and look to the future. Here's a taste of what they have to say:

Peter Steinberg: From high-school students to experimental filmmakers, I learned that a whole lot of people like, no love, physics and its surrounding disciplines, but there are so very few ways to learn about it, except in school (and who does that?). Quantum Diaries as a whole really did provide a window into a wide cross section of physicists from a wide array of homelands and backgrounds, and I hope I was a nice clear window to look through.

Tommaso Dorigo: It has been a very complicated, interesting, successful, exhilarating, joyful year for me. Sad, also, because of the death of an old friend.

Debbie Harris: I am grateful for the opportunity to use Quantum Diaries and a soapbox and at times a therapist, and I am especially grateful to all of you folks out there who are interested in learning more about physics and the lives of physicists.

Frederic Deliot: Alors le bilan de 2005? C'est vrai que les premieres choses qui me viennent a l'idee sont les evenements personnels qui font de cette annee une annee tres particuliere: mon mariage et la venue de notre petite fille! // So the summary of 2005? It's true that the first things that come to my mind are all the personal events that make this year a very special one for me: my wedding and our incoming new little girl.

Gordon Watts: It turns out we all have about 1000 ideas a day that we think of and forget. The blog is a perfect place to write some of them down. And sometimes it turns out to be a perfect place to vent (e.g. the whole Intelligent Design/Creationism thing -- when I first posted that I had no idea I felt that strongly about it at all!).

Caolionn O'Connell: From this self-examination I have learned one thing. Yep, just one. As it turns out, I'm not so special. In fact, I would say my life is downright common. Between my fear of wild animals to my thesis troubles, there was always a reader, or five, who had been in the exact same predicament. And I realize it is a bit cheesy to say, but it was nice to know I wasn't alone.

Ursula Bassler: Professionally this year changed a lot for me. Taking more responsibilities in our lab was certainly an opportunity that allowed me to move away from doing purely technical work. I had too much of sitting in front of a computer screen far away from the experiment.

Nick Brook: Another year over nearly - where has it gone? I find it scary that time flies by so quickly with the first collisions looming ever nearer at the LHC and so much still to do.

David Waller: Many, many, many times I have sat in a bus, train, car, etc. in the last year and thought about ideas for blogs. I have averaged about 3 ideas per day. Unfortunately, I have managed to write only about 3 blogs per month (this is a guess - might be 2, might be 4). There are never enough hours in each day.

Zhi-Zhong Xing: 所以我非常感谢很多朋友光顾这里并留下很多善意的评论。大家都厚道极了！我的学生告诉我说很多本科生和研究生看过我的Blog，或多或少地被一个理论物理学家不经意间营造的假象所蒙蔽。那不是生活的真实，至少部分不是。我也收到一些热心的伊妹尔，说的都是好话。甚至有人前来拜访，造就一些新的故事。我的Blog的确成为一个空间，在这里我看到了不少新面孔，生机勃勃。

Anuj Purwar: Still I must say these funding difficulties all the time are very draining and sometimes makes me wonder if there is any future for science in America. The signs are all around: physics funding as a percentage of the GDP has come down by 50% compared to the 70's. I can only hope that next year will be better.

Sandra Leone: Nei prossimi mesi dovro` anche prendere decisioni importanti sul mio futuro: sebbene al momento CDF offra sufficiente materiale per fare della fisica interessante, questo esperimento ideato ormai piu` di 20 anni fa si sta avvicinando alla sua fase finale. Cosa faro` dopo? Ancora non l'ho deciso, ma non posso rimandare troppo anche perche` in qualsiasi nuovo progetto io decida di cominciare a lavorare, sarebbe auspicabile essere presenti fin dalle sue fasi iniziali.

Maaike Limper: I've mostly been busy building the sct-endcap. But now it is almost finished and next year me and most of our group will be in Geneva integrating the thing into the rest of the ATLAS-detector. Will it work? Will we ever see real data? Will the higgs particle be discovered?

Alex Koutsman: I have just looked over my blogs of this year, and I think it's safe to say that it has been a definitive year in my life.

Rob Gardner: 2005 was year of personal lows followed personal highs. It is ending on a good note - I don't think I've ever been more content, or felt so good about the future. The point is that I have no damn idea what tomorrow will bring and finally I'm okay with that.

Sarah Phillips: I feel as though this New Year's Eve really is the closing of a chapter in my life and the start of a whole new life for me, since I am coming to the close of my years as a graduate student in the next few months and am looking for a job. With all of the funding cuts in my field, it will be much harder for me to find a job, but I am sure that I will find a good one in the coming months and meet any new challenges as they come in this new year.

Rosa Alba: Però ho cercato di sfiorare tutti gli aspetti della mia attività: l’attività di ricerca, l’impegno nel Comitato per le Pari Opportunità, l’attività di coordinamento e l’impegno che l’anno mondiale della fisica mi ha stimolato a mettere nel diffondere l’essenza del lavoro di ricerca svolto in un Ente pubblico di ricerca ed, in particolare, in un Laboratorio di ricerca.