American Scientist

With the holidays approaching, we here at Science Culture Central have visions of science gifts dancing in our heads—gifts we have in mind for certain science-, math-, and engineering-minded friends, family, and colleagues. And if we're perfectly honest, they're gifts we wouldn’t mind receiving ourselves!

This season we’re also suggesting STEM books for readers of all ages. You can check out all our 2016 gift guides here. (Book lovers might want to dig into our STEM book gift guides for 2015 and 2014 too.)

Meanwhile, here are some gifts to brighten hearth, home, and habitat with a bit of science goodness.

Handy + Dandy

The Moonwalk canvas tote mashes up the Beatles’ Abbey Road album cover with an imaginative version of iconic photos of Apollo astronauts exploring the Moon. At the time, NASA used the photographs to publicize research activities on the Moon’s surface, hoping to elicit ongoing public interest in the space program. Now, evoking the Beatles alongside their astronaut contemporaries makes for dreamy science culture nostalgia.

This pen set, which will encipher and decipher invisible-ink writing, might look like a kids’ toy. But in the era of text-message hacking and WikiLeaks, wouldn’t you rather your beloved compose letters analog-style—with messages to be revealed only by you? Invisible ink missives have a long and fascinating past, so if you happen to be giving this set to a history buff, you might score some extra points by wrapping it with Kristie Macrakis’s captivating book on the subject.

Artist Cavin Richie specializes in creating sculptures and jewelry inspired by the natural world, and we were especially charmed by this puffin who stands poised to tap, tap, tap at your door. Seems like a fine way to put guests in a delighted, wildlife-appreciating mood before they even cross the threshold.

For Fibonacci Fans

Fibonacci numbers are genre-crossing workhorses. Introduced in Western European mathematics in 1202, Fibonacci numbers represent a sequence in which, after the first two integers, each subsequent number comprises the sum of the two immediately preceding it. (So the sequence proceeds as follows: 0, 1, 1, 2, 3, 5, 8, 13, and so on.) Geometric patterns that align proportionally with Fibonacci sequences can be observed in a range of biological structures, such as the spirals of leafing cabbages and the structures of pine cones. Fibonacci numbers are also used in mathematics, economics, and computing science. In addition, the relationship of Fibonacci sequences to the Golden Mean makes the concept useful to artists, architects, designers, and composers.

In short, Fibonacci numbers are great fun to play around with, and they underlie some beautiful designs. This small wooden sculpture, for instance, is both lovely and lively. Structurally based on Fibonacci numbers, the design is called helicone: Rotating the spiral arms into a closed shape yields a sleek helix, rotating them into an open or “exploded” shape reveals a sculptural pine cone.

An especially whimsical gift option for the Fibonacci fan is the clock pictured above. This Mondrian-esque timepiece lights up its colorful squares to indicate hours and minutes. Red and blue squares give you the hour, and green and blue squares indicate minutes in increments of 5. Telling time is a matter of tracking the colors, noting the proportion of each colorful square, and matching it with a corresponding Fibonacci number: With the largest square, use a multiplier of 5; the second-largest, 3; the second-smallest, 2; and the two smallest, 1. For instance, if the largest square lights up red, the second-smallest square is green, and all the other squares are plain white, the time is 5:10. Sounds complicated, but getting the hang of it comes quickly once you know the system. And the bright colors are so much more fetching than a standard digital numeric display.

For those who’d prefer a more portable form of mathematical inspiration, jewelry based on Fibonacci numbers might be just the thing. This sterling silver pendant necklace uses the golden spiral for its elegant design: Arcs connect opposite corners of tiled squares whose proportions are based on a Fibonacci sequence, creating a spiral. (For designs that incorporate the spiral but are a bit less spendy, check here for a gold-plated version and here for silver.) The subtle texture of this pendant derives from row after tiny row of numbers etched on its surface—the first 177 Fibonacci numbers, to be exact.

Decorative Science

Do you have a loved one who obsessively follows every space mission, every rover, every orbiter, every last planetary probe? (Or is this person you? It’s okay—we won’t tell on you if you won’t tell on us.) They don’t necessarily have a problem. But perhaps they'd appreciate an aesthetic intervention. This soothingly beautiful poster charting space explorations may be of assistance.

In case there’s any doubt that chemists are totally metal, this chart of heavy metals is a radical wall art reminder. I can’t think of better way to encourage your favorite hard-core-chemist-slash-metal-fan to keep rocking the lab.

When house guests come across a work from the U.S. Geological Survey’s stunning Earth as Art series, they may have questions: Is it data? Is it art? The answer is yes. The USGS offers a wealth of gorgeous satellite photos in its multi-partposterseries derived from the Landsat program’s imagery. For starters, check out this vivid depiction of the Malaspina Glacier (below), the largest in Alaska; this image resembling lightning that actually shows river channels winding through buttes at the border of Utah and Arizona; and this photograph of agricultural fields in Kazakhstan, which could pass for a Cubist-inspired artwork. You can find the entire series here if you’d like to print the images yourself, or you can order posters here.

If you’re looking for a gift for someone whose sofa looks a bit unscientific, you can help them pile it up with STEM-themed pillows. This one, appliqued with a stylized diagram of a frog dissection, is sure to bring back memories of Bio 101. And I’m certain I’ve never seen a more delightful depiction of a plant cell than this appliqued beauty. You can also find eukaryotic cell pillows, anatomical brain and heart pillows, Earth cross-section pillows, botanical diagram pillows, planetary pillows, axolotl pillows, and stuffed chromosomes.

It’s a small ritual: that quiet moment when you reach over to switch off the nightstand light. Another day over and done. You could say it’s extinct. Perhaps that explains the knowing look of these glowing dinosaur lamps. Handsome sentinels, they’re ready to guard your loved one’s sleep, reminding them of the wonders revealed through scientific discovery and, well, the ephemerality of all beings.

Once your loved one has extinguished the dinosaur lamp, their swirling thoughts about extinction may skew less carpe diem and more holy %#$@. If they have trouble drifting off, they could count sheep. Or they could roll over and gaze at this poster in the moonlight while they count every freshwater fish in America. Or if they’re more the seafaring type, they could train their eyes on this wall art and count cetaceans instead.

Ground Control to Major Tesla

And finally, in 2016 we said goodbye to a diverse array of icons, from Prince to John Glenn. David Bowie fans who have a soft spot for Nicola Tesla should find this Tesla Stardust t-shirt a fitting tribute. Inspiring innovators, they remind us to envision the future and move toward it with a spirit of radical inventiveness. Not a bad message for 2017.