code: def can_use_widgets():
      
      if 'IPython' not in sys.modules:
          # IPython hasn't been imported, definitely not
          return False
      from IPython import get_ipython
  
      # check for `kernel` attribute on the IPython instance
      if getattr(get_ipython(), 'kernel', None) is None:
          return False
  
      try:
          import ipywidgets as ipy
          import traitlets
      except ImportError:
          return False
  
      if int(ipy.__version__.split('.')[0]) < 6:
          print('WARNING: widgets require ipywidgets 6.0 or later')
          return False
  
      return True
docs: Expanded from from http://stackoverflow.com/a/34092072/1958900