It’s winter festival time again. Pat yourself on the back for showing 2020 that it’s going to take more than a global pandemic, environmental chaos, and geopolitical instability to see you off. Hold your dear ones near and let’s all look forward to no more of whatever the heck this year was.

In the meantime, maybe you’re looking for a gift to brighten the life of your favourite geologist — or maybe you want to appreciate a favourite science teacher, or gear up for more home-schooling, or perhaps you just like nerdy things. Whatever the reason, I’ve got you covered for ideas.

Is this a diorite I see before me?

The only way geologists can really tell what anything is, is by getting really close… then licking it. But then they also want a really good look, and for that they’ll need a handlens. The best kind have triple lenses, and the most generally useful ones are 10x or 14x magnification. There are only three you need to know about:

Iwamoto Achromatic — Japanese tech, Japanese prices. USD ~110.

Bausch + Lomb Hastings — solid US–Canadian product. USD ~40.

BelOMO Triplet — based in Minsk, these get great reviews. USD ~30.

More instruments!

I don’t think most people realise they want a sundial… until they see one of these Präzisionssonnenuhr. Admittedly, they are pretty expensive at EUR1000, and they also take weeks to arrive, but maybe you can save up and plan ahead for 2021!

When it comes to geoscientific instruments, geophysicist and podcaster John Leeman has you covered. His workshop in Arkansas, USA, is capable of making more or less anything you can think of. He just started selling these awesome desktop sandboxes for making your own faultscapes. (Sand not included; I think you need about 2 kg to make a model.)

Outcrop in the kitchen

When Zane Jobe (Colorado School of Mines) tweeted about his trip to Denver Stone Collection, which included this beauty (below), most of the geologists on Twitter got very excited. The collection is online, check it out. There are no prices, but I think prices on the order of USD100 per square foot are typical. I’m sure some of these are double that.

Staying in the kitchen, how about…

• Baking (e.g. cakes) is big among geologists. How ‘bout cookie cutters?

• Try this a mineralogical tea towel for cleaning up afterwards.

• These petrographic coasters are pretty… pretty.

• You can’t go wrong with fossil chocolate from Time Bites.

Not inspiring enough? Wow, someone is lucky to have you selecting a gift for them! Here are 194 more ideas…

• 2019: This post is the key to the presents (underrated pun, surpassing even 2017)

• 2018: I’m dreaming of a blueschist Christmas

• 2017: The post of Christmas present

• 2016: St Nick’s list for the geoscientist

• 2015: Rockin’ around the Christmas tree

• 2014: It’s the GGGG (giant geoscience gift guide)

• 2013: All you want for Christmas

• 2012: How to make a geologist happy

• 2011: Giftological and giftophysical goodness

• 2010: Giftology and giftophysics

If you know about something even better than this mountain of awesomeness, let me know in the comments!

Unlike most images on agilescientific.com, the ones in this post are not my property and are not open access. They are the copyright of their respective owners, and I’m using them here in accordance with typical Fair Use terms. If you’re an owner and you don’t like it, please let me know.