Science-themed cookies for all your holiday baking needs

I don't know about you, but I've got multiple cookie exchange parties lined up in the coming weeks. If you're on the same page and need a clever idea or two, the NotSoHumblePie cooking blog has several great science-themed cookies, sure to make geeks, dorks and nerds smile.

Petri dish cookies are pictured above, but there's also:

Chocolate Atoms

Gel Electrophoresis Squares

An Almost-Complete Periodic Table

Lab Mice (which I think would be great with little cinnamon candies for eyes)

Gingerbread Scientists

Heavens, they're tasty! And educational!

(Aha! Pharyngula is apparently the reason half my friend list was emailing me about these today.)

Previously:

Maggie Koerth-Baker is the science editor at BoingBoing.net. She writes a monthly column for The New York Times Magazine and is the author of Before the Lights Go Out, a book about electricity, infrastructure, and the future of energy. You can find Maggie on Twitter and Facebook.

Maggie goes places and talks to people. Find out where she'll be speaking next.

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Antinous / Moderator

Agar agar is principally a foodstuff. I made desserts with it when I was a vegetarian.
Jonathan Badger

The Petri cookies are cute. Although technically, agar is edible — apparently the Japanese eat flavored agar much like the West eats flavored gelatin — you could imagine a Petri dish treat that used real agar instead of cookie dough…
ill lich

Those petri dish cookies are actually an interesting abstract design, until you realize what they represent. Yeah sure, “agar is [technically] edible”, but do want to eat whatever is growing on it? Ewwwwww.
Gloria

Ditto the weird Petri grossness.

Other than that, she is the perfect woman.
pjcamp

I’m a scientist (though not made of gingerbread) and I’ve never worn a white coat in my life.

This is what physicians wear to make themselves look like real doctors.
Anonymous

The petri cookies are a cute idea, but every time I look at a representation of a petri dish, I can smell a combination of agar and fetal bovine serum that’s been steaming in a body-temperature bath for days–and it’s been oven ten years since that experience. DO NOT WANT.
GuidoDavid

Major yuck moment. When I saw the cookie, I went “grghuuuuughoooooarg”. I’d eat it, but my visceral reaction was THAT’S NOT A COOKIE, IT STINKS AND IS DANGEROUS!!!1!
poshhonky

Yes! Those plates are awesome. How about some clones with blue and white colonies?
Snig

Agree on yuck vs. coolness.
I could never eat anything in/from lab. One of the professors used to use salt from lab for her popcorn, and even though it was likely purer than the anything from the grocery (though it did not supply iodine, a necessary nutrient) the wrongness was perturbing.

You could also do “chocolate agar” cookies. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chocolate_agar
mmmm, lysed sheep blood cells….