Gift ideas for science nerds (like me)

Magnetic Putty

Millions of tiny micron-sized magnets are embedded in silly putty, and the result is pretty cool. Not only is it magnetized, when you ball it up and toss it around, it'll actually bounce off of the floor like a ball.

Price: $12
https://faradayscienceshop.com/collections/frontpage/products/amazingly-magnetic-putty

Aerogel

Aerogel is the world's lowest density solid, clocking in at 96% air. It's a gel made from silicon, except all the liquid has been taken out (and replaced with gas). It's practically impossible to see or feel (even when you hold it), but if you poke it, it feels a bit like hardened foam or cardboard.

Also cool - it supports up to 4,000 times its own weight and can survivea a blast from two pounds of dynamite.

Price: $10+
http://www.buyaerogel.com/

Ferrofluid

This Ferrofluid is just tiny magnetic particles suspended in oil
- it doesn't look like much when you leave it alone, but place a magnet nearby, and you'll see those tell-tale spikes (which flow along magnetic force lines).

Price: $15
https://faradayscienceshop.com/products/hand-blown-magnetic-hourglass-1

Gömböc

No matter which way you put the Gömböc down, it'll automatically right itself. Kind of like Weeble, but different in that it doesn't have a weight at the bottom. Amazingly, this is the only shape that has this effect!

The existence of a shape with these properties was conjectured in 1995, but it took ten years for someone to figure out how to actually make one that worked. And then everyone 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 for them to roll themselves back over if they get flipped.

Price: $200+
http://gomboc-shop.com/

"Miracle" Berries

Eat Miracle Berries on their own, and you won't taste anything. Try eating other foods afterwards, and you'll feel some strange effects.

Straight Tabasco sauce tastes like donut glaze. Guinness tastes like a chocolate malt. Goat cheese tastes like cheesecake. After about an hour of craziness, your taste buds go back to normal, no harm done.

Price: $29
https://www.amazon.com/Miracle-Berry-Fruit-Tablets-10-each/dp/B002FIWHBU

Snatoms

A molecular modeling kit with magnetic atoms that snap together so you can visualize structures in your hand!

Still in pre-order: http://veritasium.com/snatoms-the-magnetic-molecular-modeling-kit/

Orbital Calendar

Anaptár is a cool little circular calendar that shows seasons, months, weeks, days and holidays of a given year as well as solstices, equinoxes, the beginning and the end of summer and wintertime (daylight saving time), and even information like hours of sunshine, dawn, sunrise, culmination of the Sun, sunsets, etc.

Price: $50+
http://anaptar.com/shop/new-york-usa-lunar-solar-calendar-2016/?doing_wp_cron=1466101392.9825839996337890625000

Newton's Cradle

This desktop display model is a version of Newton's cradle, a device that demonstrates conservation of momentum and energy via a series of identically sized swinging spheres. When one ball on the end is lifted and released, the resulting force travels through the line and pushes the last ball upward. Because it uses Newton's Laws, it was named after Sir Isaac Newton, English physicist, mathematician and astronomer, but was actually invented in 1967 by an English actor.

Price: $7
https://faradayscienceshop.com/products/newton-teaching-science-desk-toys-cradle-steel-balance-ball-physic-school-educational-supplies-ptsp

Klein Bottles

A real Klein bottle is an object with no inside and no outside that can only exist in four dimensions. These glass models exist in three, which means that unlike the real thing, they can actually hold liquid.

Price: $60+
http://www.kleinbottle.com/

A USB Plasma Ball

Trap Argon in a low pressure environment and run an alternating current through it, and you get a plasma ball! The plasma light is a result of electrons being stripped from the gas, leaving positively charged ions to arc up and strike the surface of the ball.

Price: $10
http://www.thinkgeek.com/product/964e/

Molecular Glassware

This neat little husband-wife duo makes a bunch of scientifically-themed glassware.

Price: $15
https://www.etsy.com/listing/220389573/coffee-chemistry-mug-perfect-nerdy

Gallium

Gallium is a silvery 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 you hold a solid gallium crystal in your hand, your body heat will cause it to slowly melt into a silvery metallic puddle. Pour it into a dish, and it freezes back into a solid.

While you probably shouldn't lick your fingers after playing with it, gallium isn't toxic and won't make you crazy like mercury does. And if you get tired of it, you can melt it onto glass and make yourself a mirror.

https://www.amazon.com/Gallium-99-99-Pure-Grams-RotoMetals/dp/B005DRQRZM

Mars Rocks (probably)

NASA has been trying to figure out how to get a sample of rock back from Mars for a while now. You can beat them to the punch and pick up a little piece of the red planet without having to travel a hundred million miles, by just taking advantage of all the rocks Mars sends our way.

Every once in a while, a meteorite smashes into Mars hard enough to eject some rocks out into orbit around the sun. And every once in a while, one of these rocks lands on Earth. It doesn't happen often, but it does happen, and whoever finds the meteorite is allowed to cut it up into bits and sell it to people who want to have their very own piece of another planet.

Price: $20++
http://www.meteoritemarket.com/TSS.htm

Plush Microbes

They're cute! They're fuzzy! They're potentially deadly! All of the microbes, bacteria, and viruses that you know and love (or maybe not) are available in huggable forms about a million times larger than real life. In the picture are gonorrhea, syphilis, mono, and herpes.

These giant plushes are the perfect way to make the holidays even more awkward, when you present your friends with a variety of adorable STDs. Microbiologists, at least, will appreciate that they're more or less anatomically correct, too.

Price: $20
http://www.thinkgeek.com/product/ippm/

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Note: I found a lot of these on Imgur: I ain't that creative.

I'm a science nerd but I'm no scientist - if I got any of the details wrong in these, please point 'em out!