Once again, we find ourselves on the threshold of a new year – and what a year it will be for the photonics industry and biophotonic technologies! The International Year of Light kicks off in January with festive opening ceremonies in Paris, but the calendar started filling some time ago. You can see the list of exciting events to be held around the world at the official website, www.Light2015.org. Perhaps you and your organization have special commemorative activities planned that you would like to add? Photonics Media is proud to be an IYL2015 media sponsor. We will cover IYL2015 in the pages of BioPhotonics and all of our other publications, as well as on our website at Photonics.com/IYL2015, where we will collect all the articles and images that we publish and that come our way. Speaking of celebrating, in this issue we applaud a year’s worth of exciting trends in biophotonics. In our cover story, we present a roundup of the most popular stories of 2014, from all the attention on the brain to QCL-based glucose testing and hyperspectral imaging. Read the feature, “Top Biophotonics Stories of 2014,” beginning on page 19. Also in this issue: • “Global-Shutter vs. Rolling-Shutter Readouts,” by Dr. Robert LaBelle, QImaging and Photometrics, on page 25. • “STED Microscopy Made Easy,” by Olaf Schulz and Marcelle Koenig, Picoquant, on page 29. • “Collaboration Advances Intraoperative Assessment of Tumor Margins,” by Clémentine Bouyé, Tematys, and Carlos Lee, EPIC, on page 33. Enjoy the issue. As always, I invite you to contact me at karen.newman@photonics.com. And don’t forget to share your story of light and life with the world.