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Introduction
A Mind Forever Voyaging
For my 13th birthday my parents took me around Dove Cottage, former home of the English poet William Wordsworth. I remember only one thing from that visitâan underground stream that kept one of the rooms cool, making it ideal storage for food. There in Wordsworthâs house was a little bit of science waiting to be discovered.
Unfortunately, finding great scientific places to visit isnât as easy as finding the homes of long-dead poets, painters, or writers. Call any tourist office around the world and ask about scientific, mathematical, or technological attractions, and youâll be greeted with either a long silence or a short list of the obvious famous science museums. This is a pity, because if thereâs one thing that makes science stand apart, itâs the willingness of scientists to freely share what they do. And the world is full of wonderful sites, museums, and seemingly random places that make the geek heart pound a little harder. Many of them are even free of charge.
This bookâs 128 places is a personal list of sites to visit where science, mathematics, or technology happened or is happening. You wonât find tedious little third-rate museums, or plaques stuck to the wall stating that âProfessor X slept hereâ among the selections. Every place has real scientific, mathematical, or technological interest.
Not all of the places feature man-made inventions or discoveries. There are also natural phenomena such as the moving ...
