In a experiment, I don't know yet.

Why is it so simple?

They had no idea.

But now the data is people.

I find this not only refreshing, but at some level astounding.

Nature. Welcome back to the nature podcast. This week, it's time for our annual festive spectacular.

There'll be games and songs. We'll hear about some memorable science gifts.

And there'll be nature's roundup of the people who helped shape science this year. I'm Nick Patrick Chow and I'm

Benjamin Thompson.

So it's that time again. I can't quite believe another 12 months have passed. For those of you

who haven't heard one of these before, we like to mix things up a bit.

And to start with, tis the season where a lot of folk like to give or perhaps receive gifts.

And sometimes these things can resonate through someone's lifetime. Really be an important

touchstone for them. Mine was the Legend of Zelda, Link's Awakening for the original Gameboy

since you're asking. Yours may be different. And nature has been investigating the lasting impact of science-related gifts in a feature article written by Anne-Marie Conlon, who joins me now. Anne-Marie, hi. Hi, Ben. It's nice to be here. Well, thank you so much for joining us. And say a lot of publications do gift guides, like things to buy, the top 10 presents. And you've been looking at it from kind of a different angle, though, right? And saying, looking at these things that have stuck in people's minds. Yes, so we decided to reach out to our audience and ask them about the gifts that have really stayed in their minds, maybe things that they got as a

child or a gift that a colleague gave them, maybe a lab mate, that really they still remember

today. So we asked our readers for their favourite science gifts and we had a huge response.

Yeah, well, absolutely right. And you've been writing about them, as I say, in a feature article

and it brings warmth to the heart. Some of these memories that people remember, sometimes, you know, 60, 70 odd years ago and sometimes much more recently. It's been so lovely to hear from all our readers. I was just kind of squealing with delight, reading all the emails every day that we got through. It was quite emotional to hear some of this, actually. And let's run through a few of the examples of things that people have told you about.

So some of my favourite examples are things that people got as very small children that really

sparked a love of science.

One of them was a man called Gilles LeClerc, who was 11 years old in 1968 and he asked for

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