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WRAP UP YOUR HOLIDAY SHOPPING FARLY!

Why struggle through crowded malls and department stores looking for the perfect holiday gift? Relax and enjoy the holidays this year. Give your family and friends subscriptions to Arizona Highways and share the extraordinary beauty of Arizona. Plus, each recipient will be sent a beautiful card announcing your thoughtful gift.

Your first one-year gift subscription is $24 and each additional gift is just $21.50 (That's 56% off the newsstand cover price - a fabulous deal!) The holidays are just around the corner, so don't wait - order your gifts today!

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destination FLANDRAU SCIENCE CENTER Makes It Fun to Learn About the EARTH, the MOON and the STARS

PEOPLE DON'T EQUATE SCIENCE WITH FUN. Well, forget that. The Flandrau Science Center on the University of Arizona in Tucson campus is a blast. Where else can you inspect the moon's craters through a powerful telescope; browse a collection of rare gems and minerals, including some that could be extraterrestrial; twirl yourself silly on a momentum machine; or attend a planetarium show that explains, say, the cataclysmic explosion of stars? "People seem to like hearing about things that explode," says Michael Magee, Flandrau's planetarium director. Warning: Some learning might take place. Bring a notebook, wear thick glasses and if anyone mentions the Crab Nebula, grin like you understand. Start on the main floor's Galaxy Room, where hands-on exhibits help explain why things happen the way they do. Concepts such as theformation of planetary craters get powerful visual re-creation through simple means - such as dropping a steel ball into a drum filled with sand. The impact makes a hole and the sand scatters, showing the effects of mass and velocity when a meteorite slams into a planet. See that beach ball floating between floor and ceiling, in seeming defiance of gravity? On closer inspection, you'll discover a column of air holding the ball in place, an example of the scientific principle known as the Bernoulli Effect: Air moving around an object causes drag on its trailing side, suspending the object in midair. One wag dubbed these exhibits "fun physics furniture." They appeal primarily to kids, who also enjoy digging through the Old West mine replica, hunting for copper minerals and fool's gold. Everybody gets to take one sample home. Parents, especially, love taking wild rides on "Dorothy's Dilemma," a rotating platform named for Olympic skater Dorothy Hamill that