What are great places in US or UK for a physicist to visit?

[Tio Barnabe]

As the title says, any ideas of great places that a physicist tourist could visit in US or UK?

I have been thinking about the Cavendish laboratory, Cambridge University, but I don't know whether it's open for visitors.

 

[PetSounds]

Isaac Newton's childhood home, Woolsthorpe Manor, is located just south of Grantham in England. It's worth a visit if only to see the iconic apple tree.

 

[Tom.G]

Perhaps rather far down on your list, the Corning Glass Works in Corning, New York, USA. That is where the 200 inch mirror for the Mount Palomar Observatory was made. The one in use is the second try. The first one cracked during manufacture and is on display.
Museum: https://www.cmog.org
Home: http://www.corning.com/worldwide/en.html

 

[Ryan_m_b]

Of interest to many scientists (and non-scientists) would be Bletchley park
https://bletchleypark.org.uk/

It's the site of the enigma machine and where Alan Turing worked during the war. It's about an hour's drive north of London (or a shorter train) and has been converted into a museum.

 

[ZapperZ]

As the title says, any ideas of great places that a physicist tourist could visit in US or UK?

I have been thinking about the Cavendish laboratory, Cambridge University, but I don't know whether it's open for visitors.

Your title is vague. Define "great places".

Zz.

 

[Tio Barnabe]

Thanks to everyone so far

Define "great places"

Places where a scientist, in this case a physicist, would enjoy visiting and would find interesting to know.

 

[Nidum]

All the Science Museums and Aerospace museums . There is a wonderful collection of such places in the UK .

 

[ZapperZ]

Thanks to everyone so far

Places where a scientist, in this case a physicist, would enjoy visiting and would find interesting to know.

Still doesn't clarify the set of criteria here. I'm a physicist, and I enjoy visiting Walt Disney World in Orlando, FL. Does it qualify as a "great place" then?

Zz.

 

[fresh_42]

Still doesn't clarify the set of criteria here. I'm a physicist, and I enjoy visiting Walt Disney World in Orlando, FL. Does it qualify as a "great place" then?

Zz.

Yes. I would even go further and say: any place is a great place, because physics is basically everywhere and maybe even far more than in any dusty laboratory used by a great physicist centuries ago.

 

[ZapperZ]

Yes. I would even go further and say: any place is a great place, because physics is basically everywhere and maybe even far more than in any dusty laboratory used by a great physicist centuries ago.

This is fine and dandy, but one has to be CONSCIOUS of the "greatness" of it within the physics context. Ask the general public on how many of them think that physics research has anything to do with their smart phones. You'd be surprised.

So just because we here know of the connection to physics, it doesn't mean that it is obvious to others. If it isn't, then the connection might as well not exist.

My point here is that "great places" is undefined, and it has different meanings and criteria to different people. The OP needs to explain what HE considers to be great places in physics. I, on the other hand, can point to what the APS considers to be "historic sites". And they explain in detail what they consider to be such a site, and continues to get nominations for more of them. There's quite a bit more elaboration on the details here, not just simply throw out "great places" and forces the rest of us to do the tedious work of interpretating what that could possibly mean.

My backyard is a great place!

Zz.

 

[Greg Bernhardt]

My backyard is a great place!

You might start finding random people walking your backyard after making this public comment :D

Here is a basic international list with several in US
https://www.buzzfeed.com/hannahcgregg/essential-travel-destinations-for-science-nerds

 

[jtbell]

Places where a scientist, in this case a physicist, would enjoy visiting and would find interesting to know.

Working laboratories that offer tours? Science-oriented museums? Historical sites and monuments? Or all of them?

In the "museums" category, when I was in New Mexico a few years ago I visited the Bradbury Science Museum in Los Alamos and the National Museum of Nuclear Science and History in Albuquerque, both of which have large exhibits about the Manhattan Project (development of the atomic bomb).

 

[ISamson]

Greenwich observatory?
This is more for an astronomer thought...

 

[tech99]

Greenwich observatory?
This is more for an astronomer thought...

The Old Greenwich Observatory is very interesting to most people, as it has the Greenwich Meridian and historic links from 1676. Names associated with it include Christpher Wren, Samuel Pepys, Newton, Flamsteed and Robert Hooke. It contains some wonderful working clocks from the endeavours to make a chronograph for longitude fixing at sea. It is located near the last clipper ship, "Cutty Sark" and the National Maritime Museum.
It is also possible to visit Michael Faraday's Laboratory at the Royal Institution in London.Here he discovered electromagnetic induction, made the first motor and made Benzene, amongst many other achievements. He said that light seems to be magnetic - a long time before Maxwell!

 

[fresh_42]

Didn't Cutty Sark burn down a couple of years ago?

 

[Dr. Courtney]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/LIGO

 

[tech99]

Didn't Cutty Sark burn down a couple of years ago?

They had a bad fire in 2007 but it was found that much of the valuable parts of the ship had been sent away for restoration so it was not as bad as feared. A smaller fire took place in 2014 but the ship is now fully restored.

 

[rootone]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Royal_Institution
Video links
http://richannel.org/

 

[Dadface]

I agree with ISsamson and tech99. Greenwich has a great park, interesting pubs and a market and the place is full of history. You could spend hours browsing around the National Maritime Museum. Make sure you visit Goddards for some pie mash and liquor, traditional cockney grub. Yum.

 

[ISamson]

In USA probably NASA launchpad or something.

Royal observatory in Britain?

 

[robphy]

Here's an interesting website: https://www.google.com/search?q=physics+tourist

 

[gleem]

Google "tours for scientist". There are dozens of interesting places in the US that regularly have tours. including observatories, various space program facilities, national labs, university labs as well as historical sites like Thomas Edison Labs in New Jersey and museums like the National Museum of Mathematics in New York. Some have regularly scheduled tours, others have to be arranged and other have periodic open houses for the public.

 

[jtbell]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/LIGO

For tours, specifically: https://www.ligo.caltech.edu/LA/page/Tours

I wondered whether it was still possible for the general public to enter Fermilab (west of Chicago), because I haven't tried to go there since 9/11, but apparently it's still possible: http://fnal.gov/pub/visiting/index.html

 

[ISamson]

I wondered whether it was still possible for the general public to enter Fermilab (west of Chicago), because I haven't tried to go there since 9/11, but apparently it's still possible: http://fnal.gov/pub/visiting/index.html

Nice. Femilab would be very cool. Unfortunately CERN is not in UK...

 

[Nidum]

Worth mentioning of course that visits don't always have to be 'official' . I have visited many places of interest which are normally closed to the general public by making personal requests or through professional contacts .

 

[jim hardy]

I've enjoyed the Oak Ridge Science Museum. It has a small section devoted to Manhattan Project
Interesting to fly over the site in a small plane and see that huge Kingston power plant they built in the middle of WW2 and all the power lines going across the river to the separation plant.

EBR reactor museum outside Idaho Falls is an interesting tour. First atomic electric power was made there, it lit four 100 watt light bulbs... Craters of the Moon is nearby it's a recent(geologically) volcanic lava bed..

Auburn car museum in Auburn Indiana if you like classic 1930's Auburns Cords and Dusenbergs .

 

[jtbell]

Femilab would be very cool.

Be sure to check out their http://ecology.fnal.gov/wildlife/bison/.

I see they now have the old 15 foot bubble chamber on display. It produced the data for my dissertation.

 

[Vanadium 50]

Be sure to check out their http://ecology.fnal.gov/wildlife/bison/.

But not too closely!

Worth mentioning of course that visits don't always have to be 'official'

CERN is cracking down on such "pirate" tours. There has been some bad behavior on the part of some of the tourists and/or guides.

 

[clope023]

Smithsonian Air and Space Museums
Smithsonian Museum of Natural History
National Geographic Museum
Einsteins New Jersey house (now a private residence though)
Paul Dirac's grave site in Florida
NASA centers
National Labs

 

[BOAS]

As the title says, any ideas of great places that a physicist tourist could visit in US or UK?

I have been thinking about the Cavendish laboratory, Cambridge University, but I don't know whether it's open for visitors.

The Rutherford Appleton Laboratory on the outskirts of Oxford is an excellent place to visit. It is home to the Diamond light source, RAL space, ISIS pulsed neutron and muon source and lots more!

Regular open days are held.