List of Chymical Wedding Anniversary Gifts

The chymical wedding anniversary list is no ordinary list of presents one might buy for the (un)happy couple to celebrate or denigrate their joining together in (un)holy matrimony. Why would it be? This is Sciencebase after all, an uber geek site for hypernerds, scifooists and everyone who ever dissected a frog, meddled with firefox, built their own chemistry kit or dismantled their grandfather's precious watch long after his death (ahem). Here you will find some of the more unusual and perhaps unsavoury wedding anniversary gifts from the (un)twisted mind of ubergeek science writer David Bradley.

If you're looking for a list of traditional wedding anniversary gifts and custom anniversary gifts try here, if you are after the world famous vegetable wedding anniversary gifts check out this page.

First - Cellulose - the stuff of marriage certificates
 

 

Second - Nylon - spicing things up in the bedroom after the honeymoon period is over

 

 

 

Third - DNA - multiplication that's the name of the game  

 

 

 

Fourth - PVC - keeping the garden tidy  

 

Fifth - Polystyrene - no time for romantic meals out  

 

Sixth - Tungsten carbide - the house needs fixing  

 

 

Seventh - Rockwool - get that loft insulated  

 

 

Eighth - Zeolite - more and more laundry powder as the kids get older  

 

 

Ninth - Alum - Junior started shaving  

 

 

 

Tenth - Nonoxynol-9 - snip, snip, no need for these any more  

 

 

Eleventh - Titanium - a golf widower already?

 

 

Twelfth - Kevlar - use protection if you're looking for a good time

 

 

Thirteenth - beta-amyloid - early signs of a failing mind?

 

Fourteenth - pyrolytic carbon - first heart attack too soon  

 

 

Fifteenth - Silicon - another new PC for the kids  

Twentieth - Qinghaosu or artemisinin - an antimalarial drug - useful for that celebratory trip to sunnier climes perhaps.

 

 

Twenty-second (Hastily inserted for Paul and Clare's anniversary) - Keratin - the stuff of feathers, silk and other unmineralized tissues found in reptiles, birds, amphibians, and mammals. The allusion, 22, two little ducks ;-)

Twenty-Fifth - Formaldehyde - there's even time for some culture

 

Thirtieth - Cobalt chloride - grow a crystal garden together  

 

 

Thirty-Fifth - Calcium - keep taking the tablets when osteoporosis rears its ugly head  

 

 

 

Fortieth - Nd:YAG - a little lasering around the eyes?  

 

 

Forty-Fifth - Silicone gel - probably a bit late for that look  

 

 

Fiftieth - Rhodium - new catalytic converter?  

 

 

 

Fifty-fifth - poly(p-phenylene vinylene) - display technology for the final countdown - conducting polymers are cheaper to run and flexible  

 

Sixtieth - Buckminsterfullerene - more beautiful than diamond by far but the exact same element in a different allotropic form

Given that a British couple - Helen and Maurice Kaye - both in their 100s just celebrated their 80th wedding anniversary (their Oak wedding according to the BBC on 27th August 2014), maybe I should add graphene, silicene, perovskite and a few other of the newer wonder materials to extend the gift series beyond 60...

 

 

If you're looking for a list of traditional wedding anniversary gifts try here.

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