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  • For our second present, for the Second Day of Christmas,

  • we have two blankets.

  • They are similar in some ways.

  • I got one in July and the other one in December.

  • So let's have a look at the first one.

  • It's quite big and you can see I am not good at making beds.

  • You can see, it's a present from the American Chemical Society.

  • I gave a lecture in July to the Annual General Meeting of the Royal Society of Chemistry.

  • They thought I'd make it a bit more exciting.

  • The president of the American Chemical Society was there,

  • and a few weeks later, this came through the post...

  • ...with a note saying that the president had loved my lecture and here was a present.

  • It really is a blanket, and it's pretty up to date.

  • (It's) got flerovium and livermorium.

  • You can wear it, if you want, like a cloak

  • Brady: Oh yeah, like a chemical Jedi.

  • Prof: That's the first one, let's lay it on the bench.

  • The second one is quite similar.

  • It is also a blanket,

  • but, it's actually what, in American, is called a quilt,

  • and in England is called an eiderdown.

  • This is what you put on the top of your bed.

  • My arms aren't quite long enough.

  • And, this had been stitched by a special stitching machine.

  • It looks as if it's hand made, but in fact, it's quite a cunning piece of computer programming.

  • This was given to me by Theo Grey, who is famous for his periodic tables.

  • He has a machine. I'm not quite sure what it's for,

  • but one of the things it can do is to produce these quilts.

  • I had huge problems bringing this back on the train from London, where I was given it.

  • Eventually, I wrapped it up in a plastic sheet with a luggage strap 'round it.

  • And I met a fan on the train, but I didn't have the courage to unwrap it.

  • I think that these are both really nice.

  • I haven't got the slightest idea what to do with them,

  • because I don't really want to have them on my bed.

  • Well, I would like to, but I'm not sure other members of my family would be quite so keen.

  • But, I think in the end we'll hang them up here in the School of Chemistry at Nottingham.

  • On the Second Day of Christmas, we have two periodic table blankets,

  • on the First Day of Christmas, we had some tartaric acid from a wine barrel.

  • Now, let's see what we're going to have on day three.

For our second present, for the Second Day of Christmas,

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