Fellow lovers of science, listen up: our geeky
instincts will not be satisfied by yet another dreary natural history museum.
If your brain cells are unstimulated by stuffed eagles and dusty models of the solar
system, Europe’s rich history of scientific discovery and wondrous natural
sights is sure to inspire. Here are a few of the big hitters, for every kind
Whether you are an
ardent debater of life, the universe and everything in between, or merely
titter at typos of “Hadron Collider”, a visit to Cern
(the European Organization for Nuclear Research) in
Geneva, Switzerland will blow your mind right open. At the world’s largest particle physics lab, scientists are hoping to
answer some of the universe’s most fundamental questions through the discovery of a Higgs boson-like particle.
Organised tours will steer you around a lab where, underground, beams
of trillions of volts are smashing into each other.
The alternative: Marie Curie’s achievements
cannot be overstated – two Nobel prizes in different disciplines, and the discovery
of two new elements. Learn more about the work of this legendary physicist at
the eponymous Maria
Skłodowska-Curie Museum in Warsaw, Poland.
The delightfully photogenic Jurassic Coast in Dorset, England is a magnet for
fossil fans. Rummage for a perfect specimen on Monmouth Beach in the town of Lyme
Regis, where the crumbling cliffsides of clay and limestone layers deposit new
fossils daily. Time your visit for a morning after the tide has gone out to
maximise your chances of beating the crowds. For tips on safe and eco-friendly
fossil hunting, as well as tide times, check the Lyme Regis fossils and fossil-collection
The alternative: admire geological wonders of a
different kind at Northern Ireland’s Giant’s
Causeway. Hexagonal basalt pillars create a truly surreal stretch of Irish coast.
might name a constellation after their lover; science geeks would know that it
is already called the Coma Berenices. Get inside the mind of the greatest of
astronomers, Copernicus, who showed the sun to be the centre of the universe.
Museums have sprouted all over Poland to laud his achievements, and the finest
are in his hometown of Toruń, where the Nicolaus
Copernicus House immerses you in the great polymath’s life and work, and
gives you a glimpse into medieval Europe.
The alternative: admire Galileo’s telescope in
the Museo Galileo in Florence, Italy.
Or to star-spot yourself, remote areas of Scotland are famed for their light
pollution-free skies (try the Galloway
Astronomy Centre for an organised holiday).
Geologists and volcanologists
Nowhere in Europe
does the ground grumble beneath your feet as much as in Iceland. The country is
sliced in two by the Mid-Atlantic Ridge, meaning it straddles the Eurasian and
North American tectonic plates. Magma welling up from the ridge widens Iceland
by an inch every year, and groundwater heated by magma spurts up as hot springs
all over the country. Get acquainted
with plenty more nerdy facts at Reykjavik’s Volcano
Show and take a tour of the famous Golden
Circle to see geysers, hot springs and the dramatic rift valley at Thingvellir
The alternative: admire the view of Mount Etna in Sicily,
or take a boat out to the reliably stroppy Stromboli.
There may be
haunting courtyards and clinical, echoing corridors (think Shutter Island), but the dark
ambiance of the Dr
Guislain Museum in Ghent, Belgium is misleading. As the expansive museum
attests, legendary psychiatrist Dr Guislain was a trailblazer in the transition
from shackles and imprisonment (the norm for mentally ill patients in the past)
towards a more enlightened view of mental illness as curable through humane and
The alternative: France teems with
interesting history. Lunatic asylum Charenton
, where writer/philosopher Marquis de Sade was imprisoned, still stands in the
town of Val-de-Marne outside the capital. And another famous asylum, the Salpêtrière
in Paris, continues to treat France’s good and great. If you are in the area,
look out for the monument to the great pioneer of psychiatry Philippe Pinel in
front of the building.
All that we know
about human genetics began with a priest and some pea plants. The Medelovo
Museum in Brno, Czech Republic, delves into the great mind of Gregor
Mendel, the father of modern genetics, from his life and to the latest advances
in the field. The exhibition is housed in a stunning Augustinian abbey, where
Mendel himself quietly cultivated peas while changing the face of science
The alternative: if you like your biology a
little more hands-on, why not witness a remarkable oddity of evolution in the
animal world? The olm, or proteus, is a blind amphibian adapted to live its entire
life cycle in pitch darkness. Visit this ghostly creature in the caves of Postojna,
The article 'Europe for science lovers' was published in partnership with Lonely Planet.