Hi, Donna.
I googled "novelty fabric science" and there were a lot of nifty science-related fabrics here:
https://www.etsy.com/market/science_fabric
There are also a bunch of math- and science-related fabrics here:
http://www.ebay.com/bhp/math-fabric
Hope you can find what you need there. Good luck with the quilt.
...dany
Oops...I forgot to include what I was replying to. It was to:
"I asked my youngest son (now 48) what kind of quilt he'd like and he said "history of science". I don't like to do applique, and I'm stymied as to what I should design. Any ideas?"