It’s December! All that American Black Friday/Cyber Monday nonsense aside, like it or not once the calendar turns to the 12th month it’s time to stop putting off the Christmas shopping. So with that in mind, here are some present ideas for the chemist(s) amongst your family and friends:
- anandamide necklace
This beautiful necklace represents the anandamide molecule. It’s a little bit simplified (can you pick out the nitrogen?) but we can forgive that. After all, to paraphrase the late, great Terry Pratchett (badly, sorry): Taint what anandamide looks like, it’s what anandamide be. This particular neurotransmitter takes its name from the Sanskrit word ananda, which means “joy, bliss, delight” and, of course, ‘amide‘ (which means a molecule that contains a nitrogen atom joined up to some other stuff). Anandamide is important for all sorts of functions in the body: it’s linked with pleasurable reward systems (hence the ‘bliss’), ovulation, and may even inhibit breast cancer. Fabulous all round, and it looks very pretty too.
Anandamide necklace, from store.madewith.molecules
- the Compound Interest book
If you follow my Facebook and Twitter feeds you’ll know I’m a huge fan of Andy Brunning and his beautiful Compound Interest graphics (don’t forget to check out the Chemistry Advent Calendar). His book, Why Does Asparagus Make Your Wee Smell?, is equally gorgeous, and it’s really much nicer to flick through the glossy, full-colour pages than squint at them on a screen. It would make a lovely pressie and it’s (currently) less than a tenner on Amazon. What’s not to like?
Why Does Asparagus Make Your Wee Smell book, available from Amazon.co.uk
- Wirdou ‘Be Like Him’ t-shirt
Wirdou is an extremely talented graphic artist who specialises in all things geeky and sciency. His work is so good I’ve even forgiven him for choosing a name that’s impossible to type without Google, Amazon, WordPress and every spell checker ever insisting on changing it to ‘weird’ or ‘word’. Anyway, he has many, many fabulous designs that are well-worth browsing through, but if I had to choose one, it’d be this. The non-chemists will probably spot the reference to neon lights. Chemists will enjoy feeling super smart about understanding the octet rule.
Be Like Him t-shirt, from neatoshop.com
- periodic table lunch box
No list of chemistry presents would be complete with a periodic table-emblazoned item of some sort, and I’ve plumped for this one. It’s delightfully industrial in appearance, looking like it might just contain a collection of questionable substances rather than sandwiches, so you never know – it may even deter your co-workers from nicking your lunch for fear of accidental poisoning.
Periodic table lunch box, available from amazon.co.uk
- science lab beaker pinafore
For the little (future) chemist in your house, here’s a lovely dress from the wonderful Sewing Circus. All their clothes are handmade, unisex, and promote STEM (science, technology, engineering and mathematics) themes. I can vouch for the fact that, although they are a little more expensive than some children’s clothes, they are excellent quality, wash brilliantly and last really well. Plus, not a bit of sparkly pink in sight. Well worth it.
Science lab beaker pinafore, from sewingcircus.co.uk
- Chem C3000 chemistry set
Of course you can wander into a toy shop or even, possibly, a supermarket and pick up a chemistry set for a tenner. But, I’m gong to paraphrase again (hey, why stop once you’ve started): Those aren’t chemistry sets. THIS is a chemistry set. Yes indeed, while those cheap sets consist of little more than baking soda and PVA glue, if that, this one has proper good stuff in it, such as luminol, potassium permanganate, sodium thiosulfate, copper sulfate and ammonium chloride. And something called ‘litmus power’, which I suspect is a typo, but you never know. Yes it’s pricy, but if you have a interested child of pretty much any age at home it would be marvellous. Unlike school experiments, which necessarily have to stop at the end of the lesson, with this you could mix things together for hours. It also comes with a detailed experiment manual, so parents can reassure themselves that the kitchen table will still be (mostly) in once piece at the end of the day. Go on, you know you want to.
The Chem C3000 chemistry set, from sciencemuseumshop.co.uk
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