Socks and sweaters are great gifts for Christmas, but sometimes, a bit of biotech love goes a long way. Here’s a list of cool holiday gifts to get for your biotech friends and family.
Whether it’s a fancy genetics shoulder bag, a cuddly immune cell, or glow-in-the-dark mushrooms, you have this holiday sorted.
DNA-shaped cookie cutter
Choose this gift for the aspiring bakers among your family and friends. Who doesn’t want to have an edible double helix with their coffee?
Glow-in-the-dark mushroom growing kit
For anyone hoping to save money on lights for their festivities, why not try bioluminescence? This kit lets you grow the naturally glowing mushroom species Panellus stipticus and provides the equipment needed to grow it.
The biotech game of life
Have any biotech friends into board games? Check out this game from the website Science Creative Quarterly, where you compete with other players to get your biotech idea into the market first. This is great for anyone on a low budget and into arts and crafts as the game is freely available as a PDF file and just requires some printing and cutting.
Augmented reality T-shirts showing off your organs
Have you ever wondered what kind of person your friend or loved one is on the inside? When you download a free app from the company Curiscope, and view the T-shirt through the phone’s camera, you can see your mate’s internal organs working away on the screen. Great for parties.
Killer T-cell cuddly toy
The company Giant Microbes is one of our favorites for holiday gifts because it makes seemingly serious biology into cute and cuddly cartoon characters. Get this holiday gift to show respect to the killer T-cell, which fights cancer and microbial invaders like a true biotech hero.
Genetics shoulder bag
Let your loved one look smart and stylish while they do their new year’s sale shopping with this shoulder bag. Also great for quick January exam revision if you are a genetics student.
Old-school bioreactor lamp
This lamp made out of an old rescued bioreactor is for those biotech friends who reminisce about the old days of the industry.
“A while back, we switched to computer-controlled units and this old guy was set aside. After careful cleaning and one final sterilization process, it made it out of the lab,” says the description.
Neuron-shaped necklace
Any friends working in neurology would really appreciate this one. It’s a necklace made in the shape of a nerve cell, combining brains with bling.
DIY origami kit for cells and organelles
This is a neat way to teach cell biology on a rainy holiday. Let the recipient harness their inner creativity to fashion alveoli, apoptosis and chloroplasts out of paper. No origami skills are needed, insists the vendor, as the kit comes with an appropriate PowerPoint presentation to get you started.
CRISPR/Cas9 T-shirt
The gene editing tool CRISPR/Cas9 is one of the hottest topics in biotech right now. Make the gene editing fans in your group happy by gifting them this T-shirt.
What would you recommend for holiday gifts?
Of course, this list is in no way exhaustive. There are many cool gift ideas out there. Let us know which ones you would get!
Images from E. Resko, Etsy, UK Mushroom Supplies, SCQ.ubc.ca, Giant Microbes, Cognitive Surplus, Origami Organelles, Redbubble
