'Tis the season to shop ... for toy-crazy tots as well as gadget-crazy grownups and everyone in between. In fact, you'll find giftguidesgalore - but what do you get the science geek on your shopping list? Here's your chance to chime in with your suggestions, and win some geeky gifts yourself in the process.
Over the years, I've put together holiday suggestions for science-oriented Santas, including these roundups:
- The gift of science (2002)
- Gifts for space geeks (2004)
- Find your star (2005)
This time I'm hoping you'll do the work for me. Feel free to add your suggestions below for science-related gifts - be they books, barometers or bots. You may have a cool piece of software you've developed, or a gizmo that made a particularly powerful impression on your scientific sweetie. Go ahead, add it to the list - and as long as the commercialism isn't overly blatant, I'll pass it along.
Next Monday I'll put together a purely personal selection of finalists, then offer that list for your consideration in an MSNBC Live Vote (unscientific, of course!). The winner as of noon PT on Dec. 15 - just before Hanukkah starts - will receive the ceremonial grab bag, including but not necessarily limited to:
- Softcovers: "Relativity" by Albert Einstein; "Death by Powerpoint: A Modern Office Survival Guide," by Michael Flocker; and "Hiding in the Mirror: The Mysterious Allure of Extra Dimensions, From Plato to String Theory and Beyond," by Lawrence Krauss.
- Software: A collection of PC games, plus "Pirelli Relativity Challenge," an anthology of cartoons, animations and videos that explain the special theory of relativity.
- Soft wear: An MSNBC.com T-shirt, hat and pen - with a SpaceX Falcon T-shirt and a Rocket Racing League pin thrown in as a bonus.
The whole collection comes in a snazzy MSNBC.com canvas bag, snail-mailed to the winner's address. Now what science geek could resist all this? Let the geek gift games begin!
Bonus, added 1:45 p.m. ET Dec. 7: I just can't resist throwing in a "Geek" T-shirt in basic hacker black, spirited away from the Microsoft company store.