Raindrops on roses and whiskers on kittens,
Bright copper kettles and warm woolen mittens,
Brown paper packages tied up with strings,
Blogs are a few of my favourite things.
When the dog bites,
When the bee stings,
When I’m feeling sad,
I simply remember my favourite blogs and then I don’t feel so bad.
I’m a huge fan of all my bloggers and I’m grateful to them for their conscientiousness, effort and creativity. Choosing favourites is a no-no akin to admitting which child you love the most. However, as 2016 draws to a close, it’s the right time for a best-of list, so here are five posts that stand out to me from the past year. (These are in no particular order and apologies to those I haven’t included in this short and subjective list.) Please add your favourites in the comments section below.
- Jovana Drinjakovic joined Signals this year and she has consistently produced interesting and appealing content for a broad audience. I really enjoyed reading about the first bone marrow transplant.
- Elizabeth (Liz) Csaszar is a development engineer. I think her blog is great and I love the way her engineering mind works. Her post is about scurvy and how lessons from the past are relevant to today’s cell therapy manufacturing.
In August, Signals tried something new in the stem cell community: it hosted a blog carnival. I have two favourite blogs from the contributions recognizing the 10th anniversary of iPSCs. (Don’t be surprised that these links will take you to different sites. The blogs were cross-posted on Signals and other blog sites.)
- Lisa Willemse (Expression): A non-scientist’s take on the “Noble” stem cell. (Hint: It’s not about the science.)
- Karen Ring (The Stem Cellar): How many stem cell trials will it take to get a cure?
- Finally, there is this seasonal post from Samantha Payne, a guest blogger who joined us full time in 2016. Her interesting and educational post about antler regeneration has forever influenced what pops into my mind when I hear the name Rudolph.
May you have a prosperous New Year, with good health, happiness and an abundance of interesting blogs to read.
Our regular feature, Right Turn, appears every Friday and we invite you to submit your own blog to info(at)ccrm.ca. We encourage you to be creative and use the right (!) side of your brain. We dare you to make us laugh! Right Turn features cartoons, photos, videos and other content to amuse, educate and encourage discussion.
As always, we welcome your feedback in the comment section.

Stacey Johnson

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