Places to visit in the UK for physicists

[haushofer]

Hi, I'm a Dutch Physics student, and I'm organising, with some other people, a trip to the UK next year ( somewhere in May ). Ofcourse study-oriented :) I have, ofcourse, already looked at the internet for some interesting must-see's for physicists, like universities , companies etc. Though I am a theoretical physicist, the trip is organised via my studentassociation, and that association is technical oriented (We call it technical physics, but I think most of the people would call it engineering). The idea is to go for a week or so,and Cambridge and Oxford are high priorities. Does anybody has some good advices, experiences etc? Many thanks in forward!

I'm quite new here, so if the topic isn't at the right place, don't hesitate to recplace it.

 

[matthyaouw]

How about Jodrell Bank observatory?
http://www.jb.man.ac.uk/

 

[Gokul43201]

haushofer : It might be best if you individually message or email certain members here. We can help provide a list.

matt grime - he's in Cambridge, and though he's a mathematician, he'll likely have good advice/ideas

brewnog - recent alumnus of UMIST and an engineer; don't see him around very much lately, but UMIST is a really good place for applied physics/engg.

jcsd - is either in theoretical physics or math...somewhere in the UK

El Hombre Invisible - I'm not sure what he is, but I think he's Brit.

I'm sure there's more folks around...

 

[Gokul43201]

And if you can go to Dublin, make sure you visit Trinity College. They have an excellent Magnetic Materials group under Mike Coey.

http://www.tcd.ie/Physics/Magnetism/

 

[haushofer]

Ok, thanks for the replies ! Our idea was to stay around Cambridge. We had plans to visit the Jet ( fusionreactor) , the universities in Oxford and Cambridge, and we want to do one day London, that is, if everything is going according to the plan. That day in London would be the first of May, I've read that's some sort of special day ( banking day ) in England? I'm afraid Dublin is too far away; we would lose one day for traveling only. Anyway, if there are more good ideas, feel free to post them :)

 

[Mulder]

^That's a Bank Holiday. Most places tend to have Sunday opening/closing times on a bank holiday. I'm not sure whether some places at the unis or the Jet might be closed, I can find out if no-one else around here knows, or there might be some info on their webpages.

 

[Beer-monster]

If you are in Oxfordshire you might consider visiting the Rutherford Appleton Laboratory. They have excellent science facilities in Laser physics, space science, neutron scattering, Particle physics and instrumentation.

www.cclrc.ac.uk[/URL]

 

[Gokul43201]

Naturally, you will be visiting the Cavendish ...right ?

 

[Bladibla]

Cambridge - trinity college for Newton, Cavendish Laboratory

University of Manchestor/ UMIST - A quite famous place, with Rutherford, Bohr, and other 'less' known to general public such as Hans Bethe.

University of Bristol - Dirac originally graduated from here, then moved to cambridge.

Imperial college London - usually coming 3rd after Oxbridge in terms of 'reputation'. visit whe whole of university of london. Its got quite a number of people.




IF YOU CAN:

Queens university in Belfast, usually for like 20 pounds flight or something. Bell of Bells theorem graduated from here

 

[haushofer]

Naturally, you will be visiting the Cavendish ...right ?

Now we probably will :)

Thanks everybody, our next meeting is next week, so I will present your ideas to the group, but there are certainly many interesting things listed here ! Too bad we can only stay for one week, but that's more of a luxuryproblem.

And I have another question : does anybody know if one can rent busses in England with the "non-UK convention" ( steer to the left etc ) ? I'm talking little busses here for, say, up to 9 persons.

 

[dpm]

You probably can, but I'm at a loss as to why you would want to. You'll suffer from poorer visibility when approaching or merging with traffic. It's probably a lot safer (and cheaper) to rent a standard minibus.

 

[Nylex]

I'm sure there's more folks around...

I'm here as well, doing Physics and Astrophysics at Birmingham.

 

[roger]

haushofer : It might be best if you individually message or email certain members here. We can help provide a list.

matt grime - he's in Cambridge, and though he's a mathematician, he'll likely have good advice/ideas

brewnog - recent alumnus of UMIST and an engineer; don't see him around very much lately, but UMIST is a really good place for applied physics/engg.

jcsd - is either in theoretical physics or math...somewhere in the UK

El Hombre Invisible - I'm not sure what he is, but I think he's Brit.

I'm sure there's more folks around...

I thought Matt Grime was in Bristol ?

Where are you Gokul ?

 

[haushofer]

You probably can, but I'm at a loss as to why you would want to. You'll suffer from poorer visibility when approaching or merging with traffic. It's probably a lot safer (and cheaper) to rent a standard minibus.

Because I understood that not only the steer is reversed, but also the pedals :) ( gear, brake and gass ) I really wouldn't know how much time it takes before some-one would get use to that.

 

[brewnog]

brewnog - recent alumnus of UMIST and an engineer; don't see him around very much lately, but UMIST is a really good place for applied physics/engg.

I'm back kiddo!


Matt beat me to suggesting Jodrell Bank, - big radio telescope. Only about 15 mins away from where I'm living now, so drop in for a cup of tea if you're around!

In Manchester, there's a cracking industrial science museum semi-affiliated with the university. I believe they've got Babbage's difference engine there on display.