The lovely people at Genius Lab Gear were kind enough to send me one of these to try the other day: The Pocket Chemist!

It’s a double-sided stencil which is also printed with lots of really useful chemistry reference information.

It’s made of enamel-coated stainless steel, which not only gives it a really solid, quality feel, but also means you can spill acetone on it without fear.

The edges are super-straight, so you can use it as a (85 mm) ruler. It’s marked in inches and centimetres, includes a small protractor for measuring angles, and there are stencils for various cyclic compounds—including a hexagon so your benzene rings will always be immaculate.

On the back, there’s a full (if small) periodic table that, yes, has the correct symbols for the four elements that were last to get their names (if your eyes are struggling, click on the photo to see a bigger vision).

There’s plenty of other useful information, too: formulas for pH calculations, Gibbs free energy change and others, a number of useful constants (including Avogadro’s number and the molar gas constant in three different unit forms) and other handy bits and pieces such as prefixes for large and small numbers.

Another clever feature is a phone stand slot: put a sturdy credit card-sized card in the straight line at the top, and you can use it to rest your phone at an angle. It’s not strong enough for heavy-handed screen-jabbing, but it works well enough if you just want to watch a video.

I have to say, I genuinely love the Pocket Chemist. What a great idea. It’s well-made and the perfect size to fit into your wallet, pocket or pencil case. It’s the perfect piece of kit to take to lessons or lectures (no sneaking it into exams, though!).

Now for the good bit: I’ve got a discount code for you! Order from Genius Lab Gear and enter the code FLASK15 at check out, and you’ll get 15% off your order (and I get a small commission which helps pay for this site—win, win!). Shipping is FREE.

Quick note for my non-American readers: with a few minor exceptions, shipping is free worldwide (it’s a thin item that fits in a regular envelope) and delivery is pretty quick.

… AND if you’d like some Science Word Magnets from the same people, check out this page for a discount code for those!

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