11 che a p gifts guara nte e d to im pre ss scie nc... http://dvice .com /archive s/2010/12/11-che ap-...

The Syfy Online Network

TOP STORIES • JAN 25 2011 TRENDING TOPICS: AIRCRAFT • GAMING • LASERS

BMW imagines a Web one-point- Ex-BMW engineer Image of the Day: Can you name 26 incredibly 2010-2011 w ill go
future w here uh-oh: Looking designing does Apple liv e up these 20 geeky bizarre aircraft dow n as the
transport is back at 1990s 'certified to the hype? things that that actually flew greatest tech
w earable and Internet ads on TV successor of cars' happened online years ev er
strange in 2010?

GIFT GUIDE • SCIENCE Search DVICE

23
11 cheap gifts guaranteed to impress science
MOST COMMENTED
geeks By Evan Ackerman
4:18PM on Dec 20, 2010
5 reasons why y ou
should wait f or a
second-gen Nintendo
3DS

Apple is replacing
screws in iPhones to
make them impossible
to open

Air Force building

'f reakishly large'
surv eillance blimp

Download the DVICE

iPhone App

Science comes up with a lot of awesome stuf f , and y ou don't need a Ph.D, a secret Subscribe
lab, or gov ernment f unding to get y our hands on some of the coolest discov eries.
12
Follow us
We'v e got a list of 11 mostly af f ordable gif ts that are guaranteed to blow y our mind,
whether or not y ou're a science geek. Become a Fan

Text DVICE to 72434

Get the latest tech news

1 of 8 01/25/2011 07:14 PM
11 che a p gifts guara nte e d to im pre ss scie nc... http://dvice .com /archive s/2010/12/11-che ap-...

Click on any image to see it enlarged. on y our cellphone!

654

About DVICE

6333 Editor:

Kev in Hall
Share
editor(at)dvice.com

Senior Editor:

Adam Frucci

Contributing Editors:

Leslie Shapiro
Michael Trei
Stewart Wolpin

International Editor:
1. Ae roge l
Adario Strange
Also known as f rozen smoke, Aerogel is the world's lowest density solid, clocking in at 96% air.
It's basically just a gel made f rom silicon, except all the liquid has been taken out and replaced Reporters:
with gas instead. If y ou hold a small piece in y our hand, it's practically impossible to either see or
Ev an Ackerman
f eel, but if y ou poke it, it's like sty rof oam.
Ray mond Wong

Aerogel isn't just neat, it's usef ul. It supports up to 4,000 times its own weight and can apparently
withstand a direct blast f rom two pounds of dy namite. It's also the best insulator in existence,
which is why we don't hav e Aerogel jackets: it works so well that people were complaining about
ov erheating on Mt. Ev erest. FAQ Feedback Terms Priv acy

Price: $35 Adv ertising Newsletter Signup

About DVICE

Search DVICE GO

2. EcoSphe re

Inside these sealed glass balls liv e shrimp, algae, and bacteria, all swimming around in f iltered
seawater. Put it somewhere with some light, and this little ecosy stem will chug along happily f or
y ears, no f eeding or cleaning necessary , totally obliv ious to the f act that the rest of the world
exists outside.

EcoSpheres came out of research looking at way s to dev elop self -contained ecosy stems f or long
duration space trav el. They 're like little microcosms f or the entire world, man. But ask y ourself :
are we the shrimp, or the algae?

Price: $80

2 of 8 01/25/2011 07:14 PM
11 che a p gifts guara nte e d to im pre ss scie nc... http://dvice .com /archive s/2010/12/11-che ap-...

©2010, DVICE. All rights reserv ed.

3. M ars Rock

NASA has been try ing to f igure out how to get a sample of rock back f rom Mars f or a while now.
Y ou can beat them to the punch and pick up a little piece of the red planet without hav ing to trav el
a hundred million miles, by just taking adv antage of all the rocks Mars sends our way .

Ev ery once in a while, a meteorite smashes into Mars hard enough to eject some rocks out into
orbit around the sun. And ev ery once in a while, one of these rocks lands on Earth. It doesn't
happen of ten, but it does happen, and whoev er f inds the meteorite is allowed to cut it up into bits
and sell it to people who want to hav e their v ery own piece of another planet.

Price: $70+

4. Göm böc

The Gömböc is a self -righting object, which means that no matter which way y ou put it down, it
stands itself back up. It's like a Weeble, except it doesn't cheat by hav ing a weight at the bottom,
and it's the only shape that can do this.

The existence of a shape with these properties was conjectured in 1995, but it took ten y ears f or
someone to f igure out how to actually make one that worked. And then ev ery one was
embarrassed when it turned out that turtles had evolved this same basic shape in their shells a
long time ago, to make it easier f or them to roll themselv es back ov er if they get f lipped.

Price: $150

5. Viole t Las e r Pointe r

It's no longer geeky enough to hav e a red laser pointer, or a green laser pointer, or ev en a blue
laser pointer. Keep mov ing up the spectrum until y ou get to v iolet, and y ou'll f ind the new hotness
at 405 nanometers.

So what's next y ear's new color going to be? It's looking like orange, but they 're not quite what I'd
call af f ordable y et. Something to look f orward to f or next y ear, especially if y ou're going f or y our
own personal laser rainbow.

Price: $110

3 of 8 01/25/2011 07:14 PM
11 che a p gifts guara nte e d to im pre ss scie nc... http://dvice .com /archive s/2010/12/11-che ap-...

6. Gallium

Gallium is a silv ery metal with atomic number 31. It's used in semiconductors and LEDs, but the
cool thing about it is its melting point, which is only about 85 degrees Fahrenheit. If y ou hold a
solid gallium cry stal in y our hand, y our body heat will cause it to slowly melt into a silv ery
metallic puddle. Pour it into a dish, and it f reezes back into a solid.

While y ou probably shouldn't lick y our f ingers af ter play ing with it, gallium isn't toxic and won't
make y ou crazy like mercury does. And if y ou get tired of it, y ou can melt it onto glass and make
y ourself a mirror.

Price: $80

7. M iracle Be rrie s

By themselv es, Miracle berries don't taste like much. The reason to eat them is that they contain
a chemical called miraculin that binds to the sweet taste receptors on y our tongue, changing their
shape and making them respond to sour and acidic f oods.

The upshot of this ef f ect is that some things y ou eat taste spectacularly dif f erent. Straight
Tabasco sauce tastes like donut glaze. Guinness tastes like a chocolate malt. Goat cheese tastes
like cheesecake. Af ter about an hour of craziness, y our taste buds go back to normal, no harm
done.

Price: $15

4 of 8 01/25/2011 07:14 PM
11 che a p gifts guara nte e d to im pre ss scie nc... http://dvice .com /archive s/2010/12/11-che ap-...

8. DNA Ge notyping

There's nothing more personal than someone's own DNA. And there are way s to giv e the gif t DNA
that won't get y ou children or arrested. With just a little bit of spit, y ou can get an genoty pe
analy sis that will rev eal f un insights about longev ity , intelligence, susceptibility to diseases, and
ev en f ood pref erences.

While the technology hasn't reached the point where y ou can af f ordably get a complete sequence
of an entire genome, looking at specif ic markers is still good enough to suggest some things worth
looking out f or while spurring a liv ely nature v ersus nurture debate.

Price: $100

9. Kle in Bottle

If y ou want to giv e a mathematician something to try to wrap their head around, a Klein bottle is a
good place to start. A real Klein bottle is an object with no inside and no outside that can only exist
in f our dimensions. These glass models exist in three, which means that unlike the real thing, they
can actually hold liquid.

The dif f erence between the models and the real thing is that by adding an extra dimension, y ou
can make it so that the neck of the bottle doesn't actually intersect the side of the bottle. Take a
couple aspirin and try to picture that in y our head.

Price: $35

5 of 8 01/25/2011 07:14 PM
11 che a p gifts guara nte e d to im pre ss scie nc... http://dvice .com /archive s/2010/12/11-che ap-...

10. Giant Plus h M icrobe s

They 're cute! They 're f uzzy ! They 're potentially deadly ! All of the microbes, bacteria, and v iruses
that y ou know and lov e (or may be not) are av ailable in huggable f orms about a million times larger
than real lif e. In the picture are gonorrhea, sy philis, mono, and herpes.

These giant plushes are the perf ect way to make the holiday s ev en more awkward, when y ou
present y our f riends with a v ariety of adorable STDs. Microbiologists, at least, will appreciate that
they 're more or less anatomically correct, too.

Price: $9

11. Fe rrofluid

Magnetic particles suspended in oil nev er looked so sexy . That's all a f errof luid is, and it looks
pretty gross until y ou put it in close proximity to a magnet, at which point it grows spikes all ov er
the place as the f luid f lows out along magnetic f orce lines.

Ferrof luids are f ound in ev ery thing f rom speakers to hard driv es, but it's much more f un to play
with when when y ou'v e got a puddle of it naked and out in the open.

Price: $40

For the latest tech stories, follow us on Twitter at @dvice

Facebook or Twitter

Corey on Dec 20, 2010 08:00 PM

Cool! Reply

jeremy on Dec 20, 2010 08:41 PM

i concur! i'm probably going to buy a f ew of them to be honest hahaha

Scott on Dec 20, 2010 09:34 PM

But where do y ou get these things? Reply

Dave on Dec 20, 2010 09:39 PM

I know that y ou can get 1, 7, and 10 f rom thinkgeek.com. I'm wondering where I
can f ind the others though...

ChemicalK on Dec 20, 2010 09:43 PM

I'v e just been clicking on the price. But google and shop around f or the best
price I guess...?

Evan on Dec 20, 2010 11:55 PM

Y ep, clicking the price links will take y ou to one place to purchase this stuf f . I
av oided making links to eBay or websites that seemed shady , but if y ou poke
around a bit, y ou can f ind many of these things slightly cheaper and/or in

6 of 8 01/25/2011 07:14 PM
11 che a p gifts guara nte e d to im pre ss scie nc... http://dvice .com /archive s/2010/12/11-che ap-...

dif f erent quantities.

dagwud on Dec 21, 2010 03:10 PM

Possibly by clicking the prices listed abov e, as they are links to online v endors.

H on Dec 21, 2010 10:15 AM

Great Post. More like this please. Reply

Random on Dec 21, 2010 04:14 PM

The Gallium looks like the stuf f used to show the T-1000 melting back together af ter the
liquid nitrogen. Reply

B M on Dec 22, 2010 01:40 PM

Gallium may be neat, but it should not be treated as a toy . It is actually v ery toxic, but is
v ery hard to absorb into the body when it is in a metallic f orm. It is also dangerous when it
coats other materials (especially Aluminum). Reply

Bernarusan on Jan 04, 2011 07:57 PM

Ok, cool & geeky . Now, Where do I get these things? Reply

No No on Jan 07, 2011 05:43 AM

Click on the prices people... there are links to where y ou can get them. Reply

Tracy Brumfield on Jan 07, 2011 08:11 AM

This article will be REALLLY old by the time a chunk of aerogel as big as the one in that
dudes hand is av ailable f or 35 bones...kinda misleading... Reply

Brandon on Jan 07, 2011 09:17 AM

What about Postcards f rom Space? One postcard is mailed ev ery month f or a y ear that
f ocuses on an amazing heav enly body . Reply

Thiago on Jan 07, 2011 12:16 PM

Really awesome things, specially the Klein Bottle and Galium. Reply

Ducky on Jan 07, 2011 01:34 PM

I def initely gav e my best f riend herpes f or Hanukkah. Reply

cheapguy on Jan 07, 2011 06:59 PM

For those that think $150 is cheap, good f or y ou. As f or my self , I only f ound 2 things on
there that I would consider cheap. Reply

jeremy on Jan 08, 2011 11:55 PM

These are pretty entertaining but y ou should check out Callof sanity f or some laughs
Reply

yessir on Jan 09, 2011 05:53 PM

y ou can get #2 f rom american natural history museum Reply

Marcelo Beckmann on Jan 10, 2011 06:07 AM

T1000 terminator is galium powered. Nice article, please publish more like this. Reply

jj on Jan 10, 2011 09:06 PM

$70-$150 is not "a cheap gif t". Why is the f ancy -shaped hunk of glass the most expensiv e
thing here any way ?
But these are all awesome. Those miracle berries sound like a winner. Reply

Nate on Jan 11, 2011 03:29 PM

haha i want 1, 2, 4, 6, 7, and 11 Reply

7 of 8 01/25/2011 07:14 PM
11 che a p gifts guara nte e d to im pre ss scie nc... http://dvice .com /archive s/2010/12/11-che ap-...

Ann on Jan 13, 2011 06:13 PM

I'v e been married to a PhD Nuclear Phy sicist f or 27+ y ears and this is probably the f irst
time I may be able to impress him with something BEFORE he can giv e me it's complete
molecular breakdown (or split it), describe ev ery experiment that was done to discov er &
create it (hav ing already read ev ery word written about it), and build me one of my v ery
own bef ore he f inishes opening it (and still I hav e not whacked him upside the head f or
being such a smart-ass all the time)! Y ay ! Reply

Comment by logging in v ia Facebook or Twitter

Name Email

Comment (Maximum 5000 Characters Allowed)

Security

Ref resh
Enter both words below:

DVICE CATEGORIES

3D Tech Android Announcements Apparel Apple Apps Art & Design Buildings Camcorders Cameras
Car Electronics Cellphones CES 2010 Computer Peripherals Downloading DVICE TV DVICE Video Future
Tech Galleries Gaming Gif t Guide Google GPS Green Tech HDTV Home Theater Household
Inf ographics Internet iPhone Kitchen Lists Medical Microsof t Military Miscellaneous Of f ice Outdoor
PCs Polls Portable Gadgets Quizzes Rev iews Robots Security Sof tware Space Tablets Tech
In-Depth Top Stories Toy s Vehicles Video

8 of 8 01/25/2011 07:14 PM