UB Librarians Suggest Last-Minute Holiday Gifts for Science Geeks

BUFFALO, N.Y. -- They wouldn't be science librarians if they didn't love science and the sciences team in the University at Buffalo Libraries has some holiday gift suggestions for the science teacher or budding Niels Bohr dear to your heart.

The UB science librarians have expertise in biology, chemistry, engineering, environmental studies, geology, government documents, math, biology, computer science, geography, cartology, informatics, media science and physics.

So they know what folks like them might be thrilled to receive. Here's their 2002 list of gifts and where you can order them online:

-- Scarves, ties -- wotta surprise! These frame Einstein's head, a math schematic, laptops or a map of France and Florida (yes, together). Don't delay! Go where the physicists roam: http://teachergifts.com/neckties.htm.

-- A bow tie or T-shirt with DNA flair? Check out the ScienceWear Web site at http://www.rutnet.co.uk/customers/scienceshirts/wear.htm. The selection includes apparel that features the table of elements, an anatomical diagram of the heart, a chemistry shirt that glows in the dark, ties illustrated with physics formulae and eye charts or a T-shirt that screams, "Sodium Fluoride is NaFF!!" (Which it is).

-- If you've ever been to the Mount Washington Observatory in New Hampshire (which measured the world's greatest wind velocity in history), then you know that the meteorologists who work there never stop trying to lure the innocent into the world of weather. The proof is at the observatory's online store at http://www.mountwashington.org/catalog/index.html. Whether they crave Brunton Windwatches or a turbometer, you can satisfy the dreams of every budding weatherperson on your list with posters, software, shirts, videos and books like "When Women and Mountains Meet" and another featuring the ski routes of the Tuckerman Ravine. If money is no object, you can pick up everything from a $75 rain collector to an entire wireless weather station for $595.

-- Compelling evidence that biochemists are sartorially challenged can be found at http://www.gaftee.com/Arrowfolder/BiochemistryT-Shirts.html, where at long last you can scare your teen-ager with a T-shirt illustrating the metabolic pathways of alcohol in the human body. No? How about one that features the classic citric-acid cycle? Others illustrate the thrill of adrenaline, the uptake of the neurotransmitter serotonin and the testosterone or estrogen cycles -- another begs you to "Fear no weevil."

-- You used to be able to pick up a T-shirt at this site, but now if you scroll down the BioSpace page at http://www.biocompare.com/biospace/, you can at least order the tissue culture of your choice and a mutagenisis kit to help that narcissist in your life clone himself.

-- There are lots of other options, of course, especially when it comes to astronomy and aerospace engineering, but Astronomical Society of the Pacific has a great Web site at http://www.astrosociety.org/cgi-local/SoftCart.exe/online-store/scstore/c-KidAns_Corner1.html?L+scstore+cdtf9350ff7b157b+1049021647. You can pick up a pair of boxers covered with glow-in-the-dark stars, children's flight suits, rocket models of all kinds, an inflatable Earth, teachers' aids, a home planetarium, large solar system mobiles, a 3-D spherical globe puzzle (GOOD IDEA, since many Americans don't even know where England is located) and many more great things, including books like Caldecott Award-winner Paul Goble's powerful Native-American legend of Scarface, also known as "Star Boy" and, of course, the "Totally Aliens Book and Activity Kit."