The continent’s rich history of scientific discovery and wondrous natural sights are sure to inspire all kinds of brainiacs, from physics buffs to fossil hunters.
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
of brainiac.
Physics buffs
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 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.
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
National Park.
The alternative: admire the view of Mount Etna in Sicily,
or take a boat out to the reliably stroppy Stromboli.
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.
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,
Slovenia.
