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

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SUMMARY

This discussion identifies notable locations in the US and UK that physicists may find interesting to visit. Key recommendations include the Cavendish Laboratory at Cambridge University, Woolsthorpe Manor (Isaac Newton's childhood home), and the Corning Glass Works in New York, where the 200-inch mirror for Mount Palomar Observatory was crafted. Additional suggestions include Bletchley Park, the Bradbury Science Museum in Los Alamos, and the Rutherford Appleton Laboratory near Oxford, which hosts the Diamond Light Source and other significant facilities.

PREREQUISITES
  • Understanding of historical significance in physics, such as the contributions of Isaac Newton and Alan Turing.
  • Familiarity with notable scientific institutions like the Cavendish Laboratory and Corning Glass Works.
  • Knowledge of major scientific museums and their exhibits, such as the Smithsonian Air and Space Museums.
  • Awareness of significant historical sites related to physics, including Bletchley Park and the Manhattan Project.
NEXT STEPS
  • Research visiting hours and tours available at the Cavendish Laboratory, Cambridge University.
  • Explore the exhibits at the Corning Glass Works and the National Museum of Nuclear Science and History.
  • Investigate the open days at the Rutherford Appleton Laboratory and the Diamond Light Source.
  • Look into the historical significance of Bletchley Park and its connection to modern computing and cryptography.
USEFUL FOR

Physicists, science enthusiasts, educators, and anyone interested in the historical and contemporary significance of physics in the US and UK.

  • #31
kennedy space center in florida
or
the science museum in boston massachusetts
or
the museums in washington DC (aerospace )
 
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  • #32
Air force museum Dayton Ohio.
Wright Brothers wind tunnel and instruments , plenty of airplanes including a B36,
plan on a whole day.

Another fine aviation museum in Winnipeg Canada.

.
 
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  • #33
I think it's interesting to visit the graves of famous scientists. The UK would have some really old ones.
 
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  • #34
I would suggest MIT or Harvard since they often do physics research or another college that is working on teleportation. I can't remember which one I am thinking of but if you look it up you should be able to find it.
 
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  • #35
Judging by your posts Uncle Barnabe, i'd guess you are a physicist of some renown who would be most welcome at any university.
I hope you post photos of your trip.

old jim
 
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  • #36
Wilson Donald Rohan said:
I like the Chicago Science museum. They have the first cyclotron, plus related items...

“Chicago Science Museum”?

If you mean the Museum of Science and Industry, I’d like to know where this “first cyclotron” exhibit is located. Didn’t know Berkeley would let something like this be transported to Chicago and be displayed here instead.

Zz.
 
  • #37
clope023 said:
Smithsonian Air and Space Museums ...

If you like Air Museums...

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  • #38
Tio Barnabe said:
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 best places are those where no one understands physics, as you may get the answer to something that has been puzzling you from a totally unexpected place. Like inventions - Most inventions are not the work of scholars or scientists, there usually discovered by accident in a garden shed.
 
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  • #39
EnglandSP said:
The best places are those where no one understands physics, as you may get the answer to something that has been puzzling you from a totally unexpected place. Like inventions - Most inventions are not the work of scholars or scientists, there usually discovered by accident in a garden shed.

Good point. Along those lines, I would recommend (in Dearborn, Michigan, near Detroit):

https://www.thehenryford.org/visit/henry-ford-museum/
 
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  • #40
ZapperZ said:
I’d like to know where this “first cyclotron” exhibit is located.

The real one is in the Lawrence Hall of Science, Berkeley, CA. The first research cyclotron (the first one was proof-of-cocept) is also at Berkeley, having been returned from London.
 
  • #41
Vanadium 50 said:
The real one is in the Lawrence Hall of Science, Berkeley, CA. The first research cyclotron (the first one was proof-of-cocept) is also at Berkeley, having been returned from London.

That's what I thought as well, which was why I asked this member where exactly at MSI this "first cyclotron" exhibit is. I know MSI quite a bit, although, not as well as I know the 3 museums in the Chicago Museum campus downtown.

Zz.
 
  • #43
Back during the mid 1960's I used to love visiting the Los Angeles Museum of Science and Industry in Exposition Park, in particular, the Mathematica display. This was a colaborative effort between IBM and the Eames design team. The display is long gone (the museum has been completely rebuilt to meet seismic code and renamed the California Science Center), but the display is intact at the Museum of Science in Boston. They spent a year refurbishing it and I think they are finished now. I don't know if it would interest a physicist, but as a child, I found it inspiring.
 
  • #44
ZapperZ said:
That's what I thought as well, which was why I asked this member where exactly at MSI this "first cyclotron" exhibit is. I know MSI quite a bit, although, not as well as I know the 3 museums in the Chicago Museum campus downtown.

Zz.
This is interesting. I guess the cyclotron that I saw at the Chicago Museum of Science and Industry (that I visited in 2005) was not the first. https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?...135.1073741968.100000087721041&type=3&theater
photo.php
 
  • #45
It would be cool to visit the LIGO interferometer considering it’s founders received the Nobel prize in physics this year.
 
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  • #47
If you are in Idaho, and you want to see something really unusual, I suggest the Experimental Breeder Reactor 1 exhibit and the two atomic aircraft engines: HTRE1 and HTRE3 on display outside. They are part of the Idaho National Laboratory. To get there, take I-26 southeast from Arco, Idaho. Turn left at Van Buren Blvd. and left again toward the display. It is open from Memorial Day to Labor day, Monday through Sunday, 9 am to 5 pm.
 
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