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.

Amazon.com® Reader Reviews (Ranked by Helpfulness)

Average Amazon.com® Rating:  Based on 18 Ratings

Amusing entertainment...... - 2010-01-17
Reviewer Rating:
This book is chock full of factual (scientifically oriented) data. Being an engineer myself I am fascinated by factual information I've never before read.

Detailed and interesting tour of science & tech places of interest - 2010-01-09
Reviewer Rating:
The Geek Atlas is a fun book which has brief but detailed and accessible information on locations around the world which have been instrumental in science and/or technology. Photos in the book are unfortunately black and white but are great for highlighting key principles or the place of interest. Great coffee table book. You can pick it up and start from anywhere in the book and you will be sure to find something new and entertaining. A great gift for anyone who loves science or technology.

Great gift - 2009-12-05
Reviewer Rating:
I got this for my very intelligent 13 yr old nephew and he loved it. My 55 year old husband loved it even more. It makes a great gift.

Excellent content. - 2010-01-20
Reviewer Rating:
I love the format of this book because you don't have to go from start to end. You can just open it at any page and read on. I was happy to find information about the Arecibo Observatory in Puerto Rico, which is located about 30 miles from where I live. I'm a geek, and I love this book!!

Quirky, to say the least - 2010-01-15
Reviewer Rating:
The conceit is that the author has chosen and described sites around the world where you will feel the science or technology associated with the place. Each site is also accompanied by a short (typically two or three page) lesson on a relevant topic. An interesting idea, but the author's choices seem overly idiosyncratic to me.

To begin with, it's very Anglo-American focused. Of 128 entries 45 are listed in the UK section and 46 in the US section. (That there are 128 is itself geeky, 128 being 2 to the 7th power. What's more, the author labels each with a three digit number, using leading zeros, and labels the intro as "000".) I suppose this focus is useful if the target audience is in the UK and US, because it provides many sites that are relatively easy to get to.

The author seems to have a radio astronomy fetish, as he includes the Parkes Radio Telescope, the Jodrell Bank Observatory, the Horn Antenna, the Very Large Array, the Arecibo Observatory, and the Reber Radio Telescope. (Or maybe it's a big antenna fetish, as he also includes the Goonhilly Satellite Earth Station and the Goldstone Deep Space Communications Complex.) Yet he doesn't include a single one of the world's great optical observatories. (I do not count Greenwich among them.)

There are some very odd choices in the book. He includes The Escher Museum. Now I like Escher's work, and it gives the author a chance to write a couple of pages on "Impossible Shapes". Still ... Bunhill Fields Cemetery makes the book because Thomas Bayes is interred there, and it provides an excuse to write about his Theorem. But I don't think I'd go to a cemetery to experience statistics. He includes the former leper colony on Molokai, which is of more historical interest than scientific interest; had he hopped a couple of islands south he could have included either the astronomical observatory on Mauna Kea or the Volcano Observatory, both on the island of Hawaii. And the Gateway Arch may be a catenary, but it's far from unique or special in that regard.

This is a book of places that author likes, whether or not they make "Science and Technology Come Alive". I wasn't much impressed.

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