The history of science is all around us, if you know where to look. With this unique traveler's guide, you'll learn about 128 destinations around the world where discoveries in science, mathematics, or technology occurred or is happening now. Travel to Munich to see the world's largest science museum, watch Foucault's pendulum swinging in Paris, ponder a descendant of Newton's apple tree at Trinity College, Cambridge, and more.

Each site in The Geek Atlas focuses on discoveries or inventions, and includes information about the people and the science behind them. Full of interesting photos and illustrations, the book is organized geographically by country (by state within the U.S.), complete with latitudes and longitudes for GPS devices.

Destinations include:

Bletchley Park in the UK, where the Enigma code was broken
The Alan Turing Memorial in Manchester, England
The Horn Antenna in New Jersey, where the Big Bang theory was confirmed
The National Cryptologic Museum in Fort Meade, Maryland
The Trinity Test Site in New Mexico, where the first atomic bomb was exploded
The Joint Genome Institute in Walnut Creek, California

You won't find tedious, third-rate museums, or a tacky plaque stuck to a wall stating that "Professor X slept here." Every site in this book has real scientific, mathematical, or technological interest -- places guaranteed to make every geek's heart pound a little faster. Plan a trip with The Geek Atlas and make your own discoveries along the way.

Synopsis:

Science is all around us, but other than big museums it's hard to know where to look. A World of Discovery will cover the usual and the unusual (did you know that Florence Nightingale was much more than a nurse? She did lovely work on visualization of complex data with hand drawn diagrams). Stop in at the biggest science museum in the world, watch Foucault's pendulum swinging in Paris, sit on a park bench next to Alan Turing, ponder a descendant of Newton's apple tree, and discover the secrets of the NSA. For each discovery or invention, the science or mathematics behind it is explained and illustrated in sidebars. For example, when talking about Albury Church in Surrey, England, and William Oughtred (inventor of the slide rule), there is a sidebar on how slide rules work and the underlying mathematics (logarithms). These sidebars are 'optional' for the less technical reader but, conversely, the book can also be read just for pleasure because of the scientific content.

"About this title" may belong to another edition of this title.

Store Description

Visit Seller's Storefront