Gifts for science fans
Know someone who loves science? Pick their favourite topic for gift ideas, with a fact to share when they open it.
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Alexander Fleming
Alexander Fleming's discovery of penicillin was partly accidental; he noticed the mold inhibiting bacterial growth on a contaminated petri dish.
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Astronomy
There are more stars in the universe than grains of sand on all the beaches on Earth.
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Automotive Materials Science
Some car parts, like bumpers, use a type of plastic called polyurethane that's also found in foam mattresses.
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Bill Nye
Bill Nye's full name is William Sanford Nye.
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Carl Sagan
Carl Sagan's ashes are entombed in a small, Urn-shaped container which also holds a sample of soil from Mars.
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Citizen Science
Citizen science projects have helped discover new planets orbiting distant stars.
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Crystal Growing
The color of a grown crystal can be dramatically altered by adding tiny amounts of impurities, even at parts-per-million levels.
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Forensic Science
Forensic entomologists can estimate the time of death by analyzing the life cycle stages of insects found on a corpse.
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Geology
The largest known single crystal is a beryl crystal found in New Hampshire, measuring over 18 feet long.
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Gregor Mendel
Gregor Mendel was also a skilled beekeeper and studied the inheritance of traits in honeybees, though this work wasn't as well-known as his pea plant experiments.
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Light Curing
Light curing, used in dentistry and other applications, relies on a process called photopolymerization, where light triggers a chemical reaction that hardens a liquid resin into a solid.
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Louis Pasteur
Louis Pasteur's work on vaccines stemmed from his initial research on fermentation, showing a connection between microorganisms and spoilage.
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Meteorology Study
Meteorologists use weather balloons carrying radiosondes to measure atmospheric conditions at different altitudes, and these balloons sometimes reach the stratosphere – bursting only when the thin air can no longer support them.
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Modeling
Many models use specific posing techniques to make their bodies appear longer and leaner in photos, even if they aren't actually that tall or slender.
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Molecular Gastronomy
Molecular gastronomy utilizes techniques like spherification to create caviar-like spheres of flavor, often from unexpected ingredients.
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Neil Degrasse Tyson
Neil deGrasse Tyson's asteroid, 13123 Tyson, is named after him.
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Paleontology
Fossil dung (coprolites) can reveal a surprising amount about a dinosaur's diet, including the types of plants they ate and even the presence of parasites.
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Psychology
The "bystander effect" describes the phenomenon where the more people present during an emergency, the less likely any one person is to help.
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Robert Oppenheimer
Robert Oppenheimer was a polymath who spoke six languages and had a deep academic interest in theoretical physics, Sanskrit, and French literature.
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Scientists and Innovators
Marie Curie's research notebooks are still radioactive and require special handling.
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Scientists/Inventors
Isaac Newton's work on gravity was partly inspired by an apple falling from a tree, but there's no evidence he was bonked on the head by it.
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STEM
The first computer bug was a real bug—a moth found trapped in a relay of the Harvard Mark II computer in 1947.
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Sun Dialing
The accuracy of a sundial depends not only on its design but also on the observer's precise location and the equation of time, which accounts for the Earth's elliptical orbit.
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Toxicology
The LD50, a common measure of toxicity, represents the dose of a substance that is lethal to 50% of a test population. It's not necessarily a precise measure for humans, as species can react very differently.
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