{"id":2955,"date":"2010-12-05T11:21:59","date_gmt":"2010-12-05T10:21:59","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.walkingrandomly.com\/?p=2955"},"modified":"2010-12-05T11:57:58","modified_gmt":"2010-12-05T10:57:58","slug":"christmas-gifts-for-science-geeks-like-me","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/walkingrandomly.com\/?p=2955","title":{"rendered":"Christmas gifts for science geeks (like me!)"},"content":{"rendered":"

A couple of years ago I wrote an article called Christmas gifts for math geeks<\/a> and it has proven to be quite popular so I decided to write a follow up.\u00a0 As I started thinking about what I might include, however, I started to realise that I had produced a list for science geeks instead.\u00a0 So, here it is – my recommendations for gifts for the scientist in your life.<\/p>\n

Mathematica 8 Home Edition<\/strong> – This is the full version of Mathematica, possibly my favourite piece of mathematical computer software, at the extremely low price of 195 pounds + VAT.\u00a0 I know what you are thinking ‘Over 200 quid is not<\/em><\/strong> an extremely low price.’ and I would tend to agree.\u00a0 It is, however, very good value since a commercial license costs several thousand pounds and Mathematica is as good as MATLAB with a whole slew of toolboxes<\/a>.\u00a0 Mathematica is possibly the most feature complete piece of mathematical software available today and is infinitely better than any dedicated graphical calculator.
\n\"Mathematica<\/a><\/p>\n

Bigtrak<\/strong> – I don’t have a Bigtrak but I used <\/strong><\/em>to have one back in the 1980s.\u00a0 Is the science geek in your life into computers and 30-40 years old?\u00a0 If so then there is a distinct possibility that their first foray into the world of computer programming was with a Bigtrak back when they were 8 or so – I mean, this thing can even do loops!\u00a0 This isn’t identical to the original but it is a very close facsimile and would be great for budding computer nerds or their misty eyed old dad.
\n\"\"<\/a>\"\"<\/p>\n

200-in-1 electronic project lab<\/strong>.\u00a0 Now this one brings back fond memories for me since it was given to me for my 10th birthday and is probably the reason I studied physics at A-Level since A-Level physics included the study of basic electronics.\u00a0 I did well in A-Level physics and enjoyed it so I chose theoretical physics for my degree later moving on to a PhD so you could argue that this piece of kit changed my life!<\/p>\n

I was overjoyed when I discovered that it was still being sold and was immensely pleased when I received it as a birthday present once again when I was 28.<\/p>\n

The first thing you need to know about this wonderful piece of kit is that it requires no soldering<\/strong>; you wire up all of the components using bendy little springs – nothing could be more simple.\u00a0 There is also no need to be able to read schematic diagrams (although this can be a great way to learn how to) since each spring is numbered so producing your own AM radio transmitter can be as simple as joining spring 1 to spring 10 to spring 53 and so on.<\/p>\n

The practical upshot of all of this is that you can approach this thing at a variety of levels.\u00a0 In the first instance you can just have fun building and playing with the various circuits which include things like a crystal set radio, a Morse code transmitter, a light detector, a sound detector and basic electronic games.\u00a0 Once you’ve got that out of your system you can start to learn the basics of electronics if you wish.<\/p>\n

I have since discovered 300 in 1<\/a>\"\" and even 500 in 1<\/a> electronic project labs which look great and all but this is the one that will forever be in my heart.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>\"\"<\/p>\n

Wonders of the Solar System<\/strong> – I have always loved (although never practised) astronomy and avidly followed the adventures of Voyagers 1 and 2<\/a> when I was small.\u00a0 Since then, modern space probes such as Cassini-Huygens<\/a>, Galileo<\/a> and Mars Odyssey<\/a> have added more to our knowledge of our astronomical backyard\u00a0 and we now know a tremendous amount about the solar system.\u00a0 In this series, Brian Cox<\/a> of the University of Manchester takes us on a grand-tour around the solar system.\u00a0 The imagery is fantastic, Cox’s enthusiasm is infectious and the science is awesome.\u00a0 Yep, I quite like this DVD :)<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>\"\"<\/p>\n

2011 ‘<\/strong>Lightning Calculation’ calendar<\/strong> – Ron Doerfler writes a blog called Dead Reckonings<\/a> that specialises in the lost arts of the mathematical sciences.\u00a0 Last year he designed a 2010 Graphical Computing calendar<\/a> and made the designs available for free to allow you to print your own.\u00a0 Centred around ancient computing devices called nomograms<\/a>, the calendar was beautiful and after Ron very kindly sent me a copy, I encouraged him to make a version that he could sell.\u00a0 Well, I guess he took my advice because Ron is back with a 2011 calendar with the theme of ‘Lightning Calculations’ and this time he is selling it from Lulu.com.<\/p>\n

Since Ron is an all round nice guy, he also offers a high resolution pdf of the calendar to allow you to print it off yourself but personally I plan on showing my support by putting an order in with Lulu.com.\u00a0 Nice work Ron!<\/p>\n

\"2011<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A couple of years ago I wrote an article called Christmas gifts for math geeks and it has proven to be quite popular so I decided to write a follow up.\u00a0 As I started thinking about what I might include, however, I started to realise that I had produced a list for science geeks instead.\u00a0 […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[45,19,12,15],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2955","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-just-for-fun","category-physics","category-science","category-walking-randomly"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p3swhs-LF","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/walkingrandomly.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2955","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/walkingrandomly.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/walkingrandomly.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/walkingrandomly.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/walkingrandomly.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2955"}],"version-history":[{"count":14,"href":"https:\/\/walkingrandomly.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2955\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3057,"href":"https:\/\/walkingrandomly.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2955\/revisions\/3057"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/walkingrandomly.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2955"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/walkingrandomly.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2955"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/walkingrandomly.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2955"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}