Having repeatedly called for more popular-audience discussion of condensed matter physics (which is not my own field, but is the largest single division within the American Physical Society), I would be remiss if I failed to note a couple of really good efforts in this direction.
The first is last week's NOVA ScienceNOW segment on artificial diamonds and their technological potential. It's really cool to see time-lapse video of honkin' big diamonds being grown through chemical vapor deposition techniques.
The second is this New York Times piece on glass and the science of its use as a construction material. The author, Henry Fountain, does a nice job of conveying the complexity of the situation, and also its importance. It doesn't delve all that deep into the science, but it gives a good sense of why glass is a hard problem, and why there are large numbers of people studying glass transitions in all sorts of materials.
Neither of these is going to make me change careers to become a materials scientist, but I think they do a good job of publicizing a branch of science that doesn't get enough attention. More like this, please, and less of this.
Darn, i thought this was going to be about how you cool materials down!!!