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10 cool science gifts (for every age and budget)

4. $60-$80

For kids: Levitron Ion Globe, $71.90

Kids can stare in wonder at this levitating globe that really stays up with the help of a magnetic field. Pop open the globe to stick in a magnet that works with the electromagnetic base to levitate and spin itself.

You can even levitate other small items if you get bored — the magnet can levitate up to 12 ounces. The 4-inch globe can even entertain adults in the office, so long as there’s a power source nearby to plug in the base.

For adults: Molecular Gastronomy Introductory Package, $79.95 

Molecule-r.com

With this kit, the adventurous eater can make plenty of weird things in the kitchen: Pearls of balsamic vinegar. Arugula spaghetti. Ravioli made of goat cheese. The intro package includes both a cooking kit and a cookbook to introduce you to food science.

Five additives in the Cuisine R-Evolution kit will make food behave in an unusual manner:

• Calcium lactate (a calcium salt) and sodium alginate (made from brown algae) give liquids a spherical shape. 

• Agar-agar, a thickening agent made from red algae, helps create jellies and gel spaghetti.

• Soy lecithin, used in many foods, keeps ingredients such as oil and vinegar mixed together in a process known as emulsification 

• Xanthan gum, made from fermented glucose, stabilizes the emulsification process 

There are ten packets of each additive, good for at most 50 recipes.

The gastronomy kit also comes with a DVD of 50 recipes—and the promise of an interesting dinner party.

4 of 5
Mark Sappenfield
Editor

Dear Reader,

About a year ago, I happened upon this statement about the Monitor in the Harvard Business Review – under the charming heading of “do things that don’t interest you”:

“Many things that end up” being meaningful, writes social scientist Joseph Grenny, “have come from conference workshops, articles, or online videos that began as a chore and ended with an insight. My work in Kenya, for example, was heavily influenced by a Christian Science Monitor article I had forced myself to read 10 years earlier. Sometimes, we call things ‘boring’ simply because they lie outside the box we are currently in.”

If you were to come up with a punchline to a joke about the Monitor, that would probably be it. We’re seen as being global, fair, insightful, and perhaps a bit too earnest. We’re the bran muffin of journalism.

But you know what? We change lives. And I’m going to argue that we change lives precisely because we force open that too-small box that most human beings think they live in.

The Monitor is a peculiar little publication that’s hard for the world to figure out. We’re run by a church, but we’re not only for church members and we’re not about converting people. We’re known as being fair even as the world becomes as polarized as at any time since the newspaper’s founding in 1908.

We have a mission beyond circulation, we want to bridge divides. We’re about kicking down the door of thought everywhere and saying, “You are bigger and more capable than you realize. And we can prove it.”

If you’re looking for bran muffin journalism, you can subscribe to the Monitor for $15. You’ll get the Monitor Weekly magazine, the Monitor Daily email, and unlimited access to CSMonitor.com.

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