Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

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

 

 

Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory

The lab's Molecular Foundry
Motto	Bringing science solutions to the world
Established	August 26, 1931 (89 years ago)
Research type	scientific research and energy technologies
Budget	$803 million (2016)
Director	Michael Witherell
Staff	3,816
Students	800
Location	Berkeley, California, United States
Campus	200 acres (81 ha)
Operating agency	University of California
Nobel laureates	13
Website	lbl.gov

The Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (LBNL), commonly referred to as Berkeley Lab, is a United States national laboratory that conducts scientific research on behalf of the Department of Energy. Located in the hills of Berkeley, California, the lab overlooks the campus of the University of California, Berkeley.

History

1931–1941

The laboratory was founded in August 26, 1931, by Ernest Lawrence, as the Radiation Laboratory of the University of California, Berkeley, associated with the Physics Department. It centered physics research around his new instrument, the cyclotron, a type of particle accelerator for which he was awarded the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1939. Throughout the 1930s, Lawrence pushed to create larger and larger machines for physics research, courting private philanthropists for funding. He was the first to develop a large team to build big projects to make discoveries in basic research. Eventually these machines grew too large to be held on the university grounds, and in 1940 the lab moved to its current site atop the hill above campus. Part of the team put together during this period includes two other young scientists who went on to establish large laboratories; J. Robert Oppenheimer founded Los Alamos Laboratory, and Robert Wilson founded Fermilab.

1942–1950

Leslie Groves visited Lawrence's Radiation Laboratory in late 1942 as he was organizing the Manhattan Project, meeting J. Robert Oppenheimer for the first time. Oppenheimer was tasked with organizing the nuclear bomb development effort and founded today's Los Alamos National Laboratory to help keep the work secret. At the RadLab, Lawrence and his colleagues developed the technique of electromagnetic enrichment of uranium using their experience with cyclotrons. The calutrons (named after the University) became the basic unit of the massive Y-12 facility in Oak Ridge, Tennessee. Lawrence's lab helped contribute to what have been judged to be the three most valuable technology developments of the war (the atomic bomb, proximity fuse, and radar). The cyclotron, whose construction was stalled during the war, was finished in November 1946. The Manhattan Project shut down two months later.

1951–2018

After the war, the Radiation Laboratory became one of the first laboratories to be incorporated into the Atomic Energy Commission (AEC) (now Department of Energy, DOE). The most highly classified work remained at Los Alamos, but the RadLab remained involved. Edward Teller suggested setting up a second lab similar to Los Alamos to compete with their designs. This led to the creation of an offshoot of the RadLab (now the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory) in 1952. Some of the RadLab's work was transferred to the new lab, but some classified research continued at Berkeley Lab until the 1970s, when it became a laboratory dedicated only to unclassified scientific research.

Shortly after the death of Lawrence in August 1958, the UC Radiation Laboratory (both branches) was renamed the Lawrence Radiation Laboratory. The Berkeley location became the Lawrence Berkeley Laboratory in 1971, although many continued to call it the RadLab. Gradually, another shortened form came into common usage, LBL. Its formal name was amended to Ernest Orlando Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory in 1995, when "National" was added to the names of all DOE labs. "Ernest Orlando" was later dropped to shorten the name. Today, the lab is commonly referred to as Berkeley Lab.

The Alvarez Physics Memos are a set of informal working papers of the large group of physicists, engineers, computer programmers, and technicians led by Luis W. Alvarez from the early 1950s until his death in 1988. Over 1700 memos are available on-line, hosted by the Laboratory.

In 2018, the lab remains owned by the U.S. Department of Energy, with management from the University of California. Companies such as Intel were funding the lab's research into computing chips.

University of California Radiation Laboratory staff on the magnet yoke for the 60-inch cyclotron, 1938; Nobel prizewinners Ernest Lawrence, Edwin McMillan, and Luis Alvarez are shown, in addition to J. Robert Oppenheimer and Robert R. Wilson.

Laboratory directors

• (1931–1958): Ernest Lawrence
• (1958–1972): Edwin McMillan
• (1973–1980): Andrew Sessler
• (1980–1989): David Shirley
• (1989–2004): Charles V. Shank
• (2004–2008): Steven Chu
• (2009–2016): Paul Alivisatos
• (2016–present): Michael Witherell

Science mission

From the 1950s through the present, Berkeley Lab has maintained its status as a major international center for physics research, and has also diversified its research program into almost every realm of scientific investigation. Its mission is to solve the most pressing and profound scientific problems facing humanity, conduct basic research for a secure energy future, understand living systems to improve the environment, health, and energy supply, understand matter and energy in the universe, build and safely operate leading scientific facilities for the nation, and train the next generation of scientists and engineers.

The Laboratory's 20 scientific divisions are organized within six areas of research: Computing Sciences, Physical Sciences, Earth and Environmental Sciences, Biosciences, Energy Sciences, and Energy Technologies. Berkeley Lab has six main science thrusts: advancing integrated fundamental energy science, integrative biological and environmental system science, advanced computing for science impact, discovering the fundamental properties of matter and energy, accelerators for the future, and developing energy technology innovations for a sustainable future. It was Lawrence's belief that scientific research is best done through teams of individuals with different fields of expertise, working together. His teamwork concept is a Berkeley Lab tradition that continues today.

Berkeley Lab operates five major National User Facilities for the DOE Office of Science:

1. The Advanced Light Source (ALS) is a synchrotron light source with 41 beam lines providing ultraviolet, soft x-ray, and hard x-ray light to scientific experiments. The ALS is one of the world's brightest sources of soft x-rays, which are used to characterize the electronic structure of matter and to reveal microscopic structures with elemental and chemical specificity. About 2,500 scientist-users carry out research at ALS every year. Berkeley Lab is proposing an upgrade of ALS which would increase the coherent flux of soft x-rays by two-three orders of magnitude.
2. The Joint Genome Institute (JGI) supports genomic research in support of the DOE missions in alternative energy, global carbon cycling, and environmental management. The JGI's partner laboratories are Berkeley Lab, Lawrence Livermore National Lab (LLNL), Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL), Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (PNNL), and the HudsonAlpha Institute for Biotechnology. The JGI's central role is the development of a diversity of large-scale experimental and computational capabilities to link sequence to biological insights relevant to energy and environmental research. Approximately 1,200 scientist-users take advantage of JGI's capabilities for their research every year.
3. The Molecular Foundry is a multidisciplinary nanoscience research facility. Its seven research facilities focus on Imaging and Manipulation of Nanostructures, Nanofabrication, Theory of Nanostructured Materials, Inorganic Nanostructures, Biological Nanostructures, Organic and Macromolecular Synthesis, and Electron Microscopy. Approximately 700 scientist-users make use of these facilities in their research every year.
4. The National Energy Research Scientific Computing Center (NERSC) is the scientific computing facility that provides large-scale computing for the DOE's unclassified research programs. Its current systems provide over 3 billion computational hours annually. NERSC supports 6,000 scientific users from universities, national laboratories, and industry.
5. The Energy Sciences Network (ESnet) is a high-speed network infrastructure optimized for very large scientific data flows. ESNet provides connectivity for all major DOE sites and facilities, and the network transports roughly 35 petabytes of traffic each month.

Berkeley Lab is the lead partner in the Joint BioEnergy Institute (JBEI), located in Emeryville, California. Other partners are the Sandia National Laboratories, the University of California (UC) campuses of Berkeley and Davis, the Carnegie Institution for Science, and Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL). JBEI's primary scientific mission is to advance the development of the next generation of biofuels – liquid fuels derived from the solar energy stored in plant biomass. JBEI is one of three new U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) Bioenergy Research Centers (BRCs).

Berkeley Lab has a major role in two DOE Energy Innovation Hubs. The mission of the Joint Center for Artificial Photosynthesis (JCAP) is to find a cost-effective method to produce fuels using only sunlight, water, and carbon dioxide. The lead institution for JCAP is the California Institute of Technology and Berkeley Lab is the second institutional center. The mission of the Joint Center for Energy Storage Research (JCESR) is to create next-generation battery technologies that will transform transportation and the electricity grid. Argonne National Laboratory leads JCESR and Berkeley Lab is a major partner.

Operations and governance

The University of California operates Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory under a contract with the Department of Energy. The site consists of 76 buildings (owned by the U.S. Department of Energy) located on 200 acres (0.81 km²) owned by the university in the Berkeley Hills. Altogether, the Lab has some 4,000 UC employees, of whom about 800 are students or postdocs, and each year it hosts more than 3,000 participating guest scientists. There are approximately two dozen DOE employees stationed at the laboratory to provide federal oversight of Berkeley Lab's work for the DOE. The laboratory director, Michael Witherell, is appointed by the university regents and reports to the university president. Although Berkeley Lab is governed by UC independently of the Berkeley campus, the two entities are closely interconnected: more than 200 Berkeley Lab researchers hold joint appointments as UC Berkeley faculty.

The Lab's budget for the fiscal year 2019 was 1.1 billion dollars.

Scientific achievements, inventions, and discoveries

Notable scientific accomplishments at the Lab since World War II include the observation of the antiproton, the discovery of several transuranic elements, and the discovery of the accelerating universe. 

Since its inception, 12 researchers associated with Berkeley Lab (Ernest Lawrence, Glenn T. Seaborg, Edwin M. McMillan, Owen Chamberlain, Emilio G. Segrè, Donald A. Glaser, Melvin Calvin, Luis W. Alvarez, Yuan T. Lee, Steven Chu, George F. Smoot and Saul Perlmutter) have been awarded the Nobel Prize.

Seventy Berkeley Lab scientists are members of the U.S. National Academy of Sciences (NAS), one of the highest honors for a scientist in the United States. Thirteen Berkeley Lab scientists have won the National Medal of Science, the nation's highest award for lifetime achievement in fields of scientific research. Eighteen Berkeley Lab engineers have been elected to the National Academy of Engineering, and three Berkeley Lab scientists have been elected into the National Academy of Medicine. Nature Index rates the Lab sixth in the world among government research organizations; it is the only one of the top six that is a single laboratory, rather than a system of laboratories. 

Elements discovered by Berkeley Lab physicists include astatine, neptunium, plutonium, curium, americium, berkelium*, californium*, einsteinium, fermium, mendelevium, nobelium, lawrencium*, dubnium, and seaborgium*. Those elements listed with asterisks (*) are named after the University Professors Lawrence and Seaborg. Seaborg was the principal scientist involved in their discovery. The element technetium was discovered after Ernest Lawrence gave Emilio Segrè a molybdenum strip from the Berkeley Lab cyclotron. The fabricated evidence used to claim the creation of oganesson and livermorium by Victor Ninov, a researcher employed at Berkeley Lab, led to the retraction of two articles.

Inventions and discoveries to come out of Berkeley Lab include: "smart" windows with embedded electrodes that enable window glass to respond to changes in sunlight, synthetic genes for antimalaria and anti-AIDS superdrugs based on breakthroughs in synthetic biology, electronic ballasts for more efficient lighting, Home Energy Saver, the web's first do-it-yourself home energy audit tool, a pocket-sized DNA sampler called the PhyloChip, and the Berkeley Darfur Stove, which uses one-quarter as much firewood as traditional cook stoves. One of Berkeley Lab's most notable breakthroughs is the discovery of dark energy. During the 1980s and 1990s Berkeley Lab physicists and astronomers formed the Supernova Cosmology Project (SCP), using Type Ia supernovae as "standard candles" to measure the expansion rate of the universe. Their successful methods inspired competition, with the result that early in 1998 both the SCP and the High-Z Supernova Search Team announced the surprising discovery that expansion is accelerating; the cause was soon named dark energy.

Arthur Rosenfeld, a senior scientist at Berkeley Lab, was the nation's leading advocate for energy efficiency from 1975 until his death in 2017. He led efforts at the Lab that produced several technologies that radically improved efficiency: compact fluorescent lamps, low-energy refrigerators, and windows that trap heat. He established the Center for Building Science at the Lab, which developed into the Building Technology and Urban Systems Division. He developed the first energy-efficiency standards for buildings and appliances in California, which helped the state to sustain constant electricity use per capita, a phenomenon called the Rosenfeld effect. The Energy Efficiency and Environmental Impacts Division continues to set the research foundation for the national energy efficiency standards and works with China, India, and other countries to help develop their standards.

Carl Haber and Vitaliy Fadeyev of Berkeley Lab developed the IRENE system for optical scanning of audio discs and cylinders.

In December 2018, researchers at Intel Corp. and the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory published a paper in Nature, which outlined a chip "made with quantum materials called magnetoelectric multiferroics instead of the conventional silicon," to allow for increased processing and reduced energy consumption to support technology such as artificial intelligence.

South African Astronomical Observatory

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

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

 

South African Astronomical Observatory

The Sutherland site of the South African Astronomical Observatory. With the Southern African Large Telescope.
Alternative names	SAAO
Organization	National Research Foundation of South Africa
Observatory code	51, B31, A60
Location	Headquarters in Observatory, Cape Town Major telescopes in Sutherland, Northern Cape
Coordinates	Headquarters: 33.9347°S 18.4776°ECoordinates: 33.9347°S 18.4776°E Sutherland: 32.3783°S 20.8105°E
Established	January 1972
Website	www.saao.ac.za
Telescopes
SALT 11m reflector 1.9m 1.9m reflector Infrared Survey Facility 1.4m reflector MONET 1.2m reflector 1.0m 1m reflector SuperWASP-South 8x Canon 200mm f/1.8 ACT 75 cm reflector Solaris-1 0.5m f/15 Ritchey–Chrétien Solaris-1 0.5m f/15 Ritchey–Chrétien
Location of South African Astronomical Observatory

South African Astronomical Observatory (SAAO) is the national centre for optical and infrared astronomy in South Africa. It was established in 1972. The observatory is run by the National Research Foundation of South Africa. The facility's function is to conduct research in astronomy and astrophysics. The primary telescopes are located in Sutherland, which is 370 kilometres (230 mi) from Observatory, Cape Town, where the headquarters is located.

The SAAO has links worldwide for scientific and technological collaboration. Instrumental contributions from the South African Astronomical Observatory include the development of a spherical aberration corrector and the Southern African Large Telescope (SALT).

The Noon Gun on Cape Town's Signal Hill is fired remotely by a time signal from the Observatory.

History

The buildings of the South African Astronomical Observatory in Cape Town.

The history of the SAAO began when the Royal Observatory at the Cape of Good Hope was founded in 1820, the first scientific institution in Africa. Construction of the main buildings was completed in 1829 at a cost of £30,000 (equivalent to £2.7 million in 2020). The post of Her Majesty's astronomer at the Cape of Good Hope was awarded the Royal Medal on two occasions; the first to Thomas Maclear in 1869 for measurement of an arc of the meridian at the Cape of Good Hope and the second to David Gill in 1903 for researches in solar and stellar parallax, and his energetic direction of the Royal Observatory at the Cape of Good Hope.

The Republic Observatory, Johannesburg, was merged with the much older Royal Observatory, Cape of Good Hope in January 1972 to form the South African Astronomical Observatory. In 1974 the Radcliffe Observatory telescope was purchased by the CSIR and moved to Sutherland, where it recommenced work in 1976.

SAAO was established in January 1972, as a result of a joint agreement by the Council for Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR) of South Africa and Science and Engineering Research Council (SERC) of United Kingdom. The headquarters are located on the grounds of the old Royal Observatory where the main building, offices, national library for astronomy and computer facilities are housed. Historic telescopes are also found at the headquarters in a number of domes and a small museum that displays scientific instruments. The South African Astronomical Observatory is administered at present as a National Facility under management of the National Research Foundation (NRF), formerly the Foundation for Research Development (FRD). In 1974, when the Radcliffe Observatory in Pretoria closed, the Council for Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR) purchased the 1.9-m Radcliffe telescope and transported it to Sutherland.

Facilities

Sign at the entrance to Sutherland Observatory near Sutherland, Northern Cape

 

The observatory operates from the campus of the Royal Observatory, Cape of Good Hope that was established in 1820 in the suburb of Observatory, Cape Town.

The major observing facilities are however located near the town of Sutherland some 370 kilometres (230 mi) from Cape Town.

Telescopes

Two telescope domes at the South African Astronomical Observatory

0.50m telescope

This 0.5 metres (20 in) reflector was originally built for the Republic Observatory in 1967, but was moved to the Sutherland site in 1972.

0.75m telescope

A 0.75 metres (30 in) Grubb Parsons reflector.

1.0m Telescope

The 40-inch (1-m) Elizabeth Telescope at the South African Astronomical Observatory

This 40 inches (1.0 m) telescope was originally located at SAAO Head office in Observatory, Cape Town, but has since moved to the Sutherland site. This telescope participates in the PLANET network.

1.9m Telescope

The 74" Reflector

The 1.9-m (74-inch) Radcliffe Telescope was commissioned for the Radcliffe Observatory in Pretoria where it was in use between 1948 and 1974. Following the closure of the Radcliffe Observatory it was moved to Sutherland where it became operational again in January 1976. Between 1951 and 2004 it was the largest telescope in South Africa. The telescope was manufactured by Sir Howard Grubb, Parsons and Co.

Alan Cousins Telescope (ACT)

This 29.5 inches (75 cm) telescope was originally called the Automatic Photometric Telescope, but has been renamed the Alan Cousins Telescope in honour of Alan William James Cousins.

BiSON

One of six telescopes in the Birmingham Solar Oscillations Network

Infrared Survey Facility (IRSF)

The IRSF is a 140 centimetres (55 in) reflector fitted with a 3 colour Infrared Imager. Originally built as part of the Magellanic Clouds – A Thorough Study grant from the Japanese Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology in 2000. Other studies the telescope participated in include:

• The Indian Department of Space used this telescope for the Near Infrared Survey of the Nuclear Regions of the Milky Way to improve on data from the DENIS and 2MASS Astronomical surveys.

Las Cumbres Observatory Global Telescope Network

Three 1 metre (39 in) telescopes to form part of the LCOGT network were installed in early 2013.

MASTER

The MASTER-SAAO Telescope (obs. code: K95) is part of the Russian Mobile Astronomical System of Telescope-Robots. It saw first light on 21 December 2014. It consists of two paired 0.4-m telescopes. In April 2015 it discovered the first comet from South Africa in 35 years, C/2015 G2 (MASTER).

MONET

One of the two 1.20 metres (47 in) telescopes of the MOnitoring NEtwork of Telescopes Project is located at Sutherland. Its twin can be found at the McDonald Observatory in Texas. The MONET telescopes are Robotic telescope controllable via the Internet and was constructed by the University of Göttingen. Remote Telescope Markup Language is used to control the telescopes remotely.

Project Solaris

Solaris-1 and Solaris-2

 

Two telescopes forming part of Project Solaris is located at the Sutherland site. Solaris-1 and Solaris-2 are both 0.5m f/15 Ritchey–Chrétien telescope. The aims of Project Solaris is to detect circumbinary planets around eclipsing binary stars and to characterise these binaries to improve stellar models.

SALT

Southern African Large Telescope (SALT)

SALT was inaugurated in November 2005. It is the largest single optical telescope in the Southern Hemisphere, with a hexagonal mirror array 11 meters across. SALT shares similarities with the Hobby-Eberly Telescope (HET) in Texas. The Southern African Large Telescope gathers twenty-five times as much light as any other existing African Telescope. With this larger mirror array, SALT can record distant stars, galaxies and quasars.

SuperWASP-South

SuperWASP-South

The Wide Angle Search for Planets consists of two robotic telescopes, the one located at SAAO Sutherland and the other at Roque de los Muchachos Observatory on the island of La Palma in the Canaries. WASP-17b, the first exoplanet known to have a retrograde orbit was discovered in 2009 using this array.

KELT-South

KELT-South (Kilodegree Extremely Little Telescope – South) is a small robotic telescope that is designed to detect transiting extrasolar planets. The telescope is owned and operated by Vanderbilt University and was based on the design of KELT-North, which was conceived and designed at the Ohio State University, Department of Astronomy. The KELT-South telescope will serve as a counterpart to its northern twin, surveying the southern sky for transiting planets over the next few years.

Yonsei Survey Telescopes for Astronomical Research (YSTAR)

The Yonsei Survey Telescopes for Astronomical Research (YSTAR), decommissioned in 2012, was used for the monitoring of variable stars and other transient events. YSTAR was a joint project between SAAO and the Yonsei University, Korea.

Geophysical

South African Geodynamic Observatory Sutherland (SAGOS)

The GeoForschungsZentrum, Potsdam in co-operation with the National Research Foundation of South Africa constructed the SAGOS between 1998 and 2000.

SAGOS consist of a 1 Hz permanent GPS station, a superconducting gravimeter, meteorological sensors, and a tri-axial magnetometer. The GPS station is also used in support of the CHAllenging Minisatellite Payload (CHAMP) and Gravity Recovery and Climate Experiment (GRACE) space missions.

SUR Station

The SUR station forms part of the International Deployment of Accelerometers Project and the Global Seismographic Network of the Incorporated Research Institutions for Seismology

Science tourism

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

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

Science tourism is a travel topic grouping scientific attractions. It covers interests in visiting and exploring scientific landmarks, including museums, laboratories, observatories and universities. It also includes visits to see events of scientific interest, such as solar eclipses.

A laboratory is a workplace and many have ongoing scientific research. They may not be open to the general public, or may only offer occasional special opportunities for public access. Many observatories are open to the public at regular hours, and have tours showcasing their astronomical research.

Museums

Europe

Northern Europe

• Nobel Museum It has exhibitions about the Nobel Prize.
• Sweden Solar System in greater Stockholm, contains the world's largest scale model of the Solar System.
• Heureka in Vantaa is an interactive science museum, with different kinds of exhibitions about technology, physics, chemistry, medicine, astronomy and so on. Really exciting for children interested in science.

Central Europe

Deutsches Museum

• Peenemünde – A place where the Germans developed some of the world's first rockets before and during WW2.
• Marie Curie Museum– History of radioactivity
• Auto & Technik Museum in Sinsheim, Baden-Württemberg (southwestern Germany). Has interesting displays of many vintage and historic cars, motorcycles, other machinery, and an extensive collection of aircraft, including a Soviet Tu 144 and French/Britain Concorde.
• Deutsches Museum – A museum of "everything technology" and more. A scientific and technical museum and one of the most important sights in the Munich area, visited by roughly 1.5 million visitors per year. Topics include brewing, computer sciences and bridge building. There are guided tours on specific themes and in different languages. There is a planetarium and two branch offices in other locations, which show vehicles that found no place in downtown Munich.
• Zeppelin Museum in the city of Friedrichshafen offers a museum dedicated to zeppelins, and another to Dornier aircraft.

Western Europe

• Science Museum London
• The Down House – Charles Darwin lived here when he worked out the theory of evolution by natural selection. Darwin wrote 'On the Origin of Species' in this house. The house has also carnivorous plants and exotic orchids.
• James Clerk Maxwell's Birthplace and Museum – Edinburgh's answer to Newton and Einstein. His equations unified the forces of Electricity and Magnetism and paved the way for Einstein's theory of special relativity. Modern technology in electricity and electronics, derive from Maxwell's discovery of the laws of the electromagnetic field, bringing a fundamental change in concept that influenced greatly the modern scientific and industrial revolution."

Southern Europe

• Leonardo da Vinci Museum of Science and Technology – Located in Milan. As the name tells, it is a museum to learn more about science and technology. Hosted in a former monastery, San Vittore al Corpo.
• South Tyrol Museum of Archaeology

Eastern Europe

• Memorial Museum of Astronautics in the outskirts of Moscow there are a couple of sites dedicated to the Soviet and Russian contributions to science and technology. These include the Memorial Museum of Astronautics, the All-Russia Exhibition Centre and the Monument to the Conquerors of Space.
• Ostankino Tower – 540 m (1,770 ft) high concrete transmission tower, Ostankino Tower.
• Akademgorodok – Out in the Siberian taiga near Novosibirsk, Akademgorodok (literally "academy town") was built during the Soviet era, so that the academic elite could conduct their research in relative freedom, prosperity, and isolation. The planned city with tree lined streets hosts several museums, institutes, as well as a beach on the Ob Sea, an artificial reservoir.

North America

• Exploratorium in San Francisco
• Kennedy Space Center in Cape Canaveral - The launch site for NASA's space missions. All 12 persons who have traveled to the Moon so far have started their journeys from here.
• National Air and Space Museum in Washington, D.C.
• National Museum of Mathematics or MoMath in New York
• National Museum of Natural History in Washington, D.C.
• Space Center Houston in Webster, Texas - NASA space museum, plus tram tours of Johnson Space Center, including astronaut training facilities, Mission Control, and the actual Apollo and Mercury launch vehicles.

Oceania

• Powerhouse Museum – The Powerhouse Museum is a large museum, essentially of popular culture. It has displays on the history of fashion and transport, decorative arts, music, and space exploration exhibits. It also partly plays on a sci-tech theme, with interactive hands-on and discovery displays of technology, design and industry There is usually a special exhibition on as well. There are in-depth displays for all ages, but also displays especially created for young children to discover and play.
• Questacon – an interactive museum of science with exhibits illustrating scientific ideas from the principles of physics to the motion of an earthquake. Great for kids and excellent science books can be picked up here. Allow at least half a day.

South America

• Alcântara in Northeast Brazil, is the rocket launch site for the Brazilian Space Agency, and hosts a museum on the site
• Kourou in French Guiana hosts the Guyana Space Centre, the primary rocket launch site for the European Space Agency.
• Gold Museum in Bogotá, Colombia
• The Archeology Museum in Bogotá, Colombia
• Casa Marqués de San Jorge in Bogotá, Colombia

Laboratories

Europe

Many European countries participate on the European Organization for Nuclear Research, which has his laboratories including the famous Large Hadron Collider on the French/Swiss border. Plus the bigger European countries like France, Germany, Italy and UK operate national laboratories. Most laboratories have open days for public visits.

CERN Aerial View of LHC accelerator and its experiments (Lake Geneva in the background)

• Commissariat à l'énergie atomique et aux énergies alternatives – The CEA has 5 divisions: nuclear energy, technological research, life sciences, sciences of matter and military applications. It has one of the top 100 supercomputers in the world, the Tera-100.
  • CEA Saclay – The biggest research center of the CEA hosts nuclear research reactors.
• CERN – the European Organization for Nuclear Research, physicists and engineers are probing the fundamental structure of the universe. The Large Hadron Collider (LHC) is the world's largest experiment and most complex scientific accelerator. Founded in 1954, the CERN laboratory sits astride the Franco-Swiss border near Geneva. The weak force got discovered here in 1973 and in 1983 subsequently the W and Z bosons. In 1995 it created the first Anti-Hydrogen atoms of which the ASACUSA experiment can since 2014 produce a beam of. In 2012 the ATLAS and CMS experiment announced the discovery of a boson with 125 GeV, whose properties got confirmed to be the long-sought Higgs boson.
  • Microcosm – In front of the entrance of the CERN laboratory there is a permanent exposition retracing its history.
  • CERN Guided Tours – Both as individual or as group it is possible from time to time to visit the experiments.
• DESY (Hamburg)
• FAIR
• Gran Sasso
• National Physical Laboratory – the birthplace of atomic timekeeping. In the 1950s, Louis Essen and John Parry constructed the atomic clock, Caesium Mk. 1. This new clock kept time more accurately. It paved the way for redefining the second in 1967, based on the fundamental properties of CS atoms, rather than the quite irregular Earth rotation. The facilities in Teddington are among the world's most extensive and sophisticated for measurement science. On 20 May 2014, NPL Open House will give people the chance to explore much of the science that goes on at NPL and the facilities that are used to do it: NPL Open House 2014. While children are allowed, the exhibits are aimed for adults, and children must be kept under adult supervision at all times.
• Rutherford Appleton Laboratory – a national scientific research laboratories in the UK operated by the Science and Technology Facilities Council. It is a multidisciplinary centre for research both in physical and life sciences. It had in 1957 a 50 MeV proton linear accelerator. RAL hosts ISIS, a spallation neutron source and the Central Laser Facility. RAL organises a monthly public scientific lecture: Talking Science.

North America

DOE Laboratories

In the United States of America overseen by the United States Department of Energy (DOE) the Office of science operates ten national laboratories. In total there are 17 national laboratories funded by the DOE. Most of the sites hold open houses where the public can come in for free and see how American tax dollars are invested in research. This used to include nuclear facilities, but those have been restricted since 9/11.

• Ames Laboratory – conducts research into various areas, including the synthesis and study of new materials, energy resources, high-speed computer design, and environmental cleanup and restoration. The Ames Project purpose was to produce high purity uranium to accompany the Manhattan Project. Its most notable faculty member Dan Shechtman won the 2011 Chemistry Nobel prize. Contact the Lab in advance of your visit. Group tours can be arranged through the public affairs office.
• Argonne National Laboratory – founded in 1946 to carry out Enrico Fermi's work on nuclear reactors as part of the Manhattan Project. Today Argonne is a multidisciplinary science and engineering research center, to address vital national challenges in clean energy, environment, technology and national security. Argonne welcomes all members of the public age 16 or older to take guided tours of the scientific and engineering facilities and grounds. Tours last about two and a half hours and are by reservation only (call or email).
• Brookhaven National Laboratory – a multipurpose research institution funded primarily by the U.S. Department of Energy’s Office of Science. Located on the center of Long Island, New York, Brookhaven Lab operates large-scale facilities for studies in physics, chemistry, biology, medicine and applied science. It is the home of the Relativistic Heavy Ion Collider, which first observed/created the Quark-Gluon-Plasma. Brookhaven scientists won 7 Nobel prices including the Ribosome discovery (2009). The lab is open to the public on Sundays during the summer for tours and special programs.
• Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory – a US Department of Energy national laboratory specializing in high-energy particle physics. Hence many components of the Large Hadron Collider got engineered and tested here. The Top quark was discovered in 1995 by both the CDF and DØ experiments of the Tevatron accelerator at Fermilab. The 2008 Nobel price was given for the prediction of the third generation of quarks (Bottom and Top quarks). Fermilab visitors are allowed to visit two buildings on their own: the first and ground floor of Wilson Hall and the Lederman Science Center, Groups of six or more must book a visit by calling the Center.
• Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory – founded in 1931 by Ernest Orlando Lawrence. 13 Nobel prizes have been awarded to LBNL scientists, the most recent one (2011) for the discovery of the accelerated expansion of the Universe. It started as a particle physics laboratory, became involved for the study of nuclear matter and discovered 16 chemical elements. It is today a multi-program research site. Visitors need special clearance or may take advantage of the open days. The site on top of the hill nicely overlooks the San Francisco Bay.
• Oak Ridge National Laboratory – a multiprogram science and energy laboratory, with scientific and technical capabilities spanning from basic to applied research. ORNL is famous to host the Titan supercomputer. The Spallation Neutron Source is an accelerator-based neutron source facility that provides the most intense pulsed neutron beams in the world for scientific research and industrial development. Oak Ridge National Laboratory hosts thousands of visitors every year. It is very important, if you are not a DOE or DOE contractor employee, to arrange your visit to ORNL ahead of time.
• Pacific Northwest National Laboratory – has many research projects for the U.S. Department of Homeland Security and the National Nuclear Security Administration. All PNNL visitors, regardless of nationality, will need to have visitor badges to go past the Lobby.
• Princeton Plasma Physics Laboratory – researches plasma physics and nuclear fusion science. PPPL is located on Princeton University's Forrestal Campus. The free tours are led by engineers and physicists who can answer questions about magnetic fusion. In order to visit email to request a tour and give PPPL two weekdays when you would like to visit and some background on your group, including where your group is from, how many people are in your group, the age-range and the educational background of your group.
• SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory – does experimental and theoretical research in elementary particle physics using electron beams and a broad program of research in atomic and solid-state physics, chemistry, biology, and medicine using synchrotron radiation. It discovered the charm quark, the quark structure inside the protons and neutrons and the tau lepton (3 Nobel prizes). At this time, all public and educational tours of the laboratory have been suspended. SLAC hopes to have them back and asks to check their website periodically for updates.
• Thomas Jefferson National Accelerator Facility – the Continuous Electron Beam Accelerator Facility, which is 1400m in length and accelerates electrons up to 6 GeV. The most powerful free-electron laser in the world has an output of over 14 kilowatts. The lab has an open house once a year that includes a tour of the accelerator tunnel and the free electron laser. No registration of visitors is required during the open house. The open house tours involve extended periods of walking, and many tour stops include stairs. Also, much of the event is outdoors.

Other Laboratories

• Biosphere 2 – designed as an artificially closed complete ecology, and was the setting for research on human interaction with natural systems. The site is now owned and maintained by the University of Arizona, which conducts tours for the public. Beware that the scientific credentials of the initial project phase are quite unclear as it started as theatre group. For example no input was taken from the Antarctic research stations, where researchers experienced extreme confinement.

Observatories

Europe

• ESO Supernova Planetarium & Visitor Centre – is an astronomy centre for the public located at the site of ESO Headquarters in Garching near Munich.
• European Space Agency's Columbus Control Centre – used to control the Columbus research laboratory of the International Space Station, as well as a ground control centre for the Galileo satellite navigation system. It is located at a large research facility of the German Aerospace Centre. (DLR).
• Stjerneborg observatory on Hven Island, Sweden - Tycho Brahe's observatory.
• University Observatory Vienna – The Institute of Astronomy is part of the University of Vienna, located inside a fabulous historic building. The building and the Sternwartepark were closed for visitors up until recently. The park contains many rare trees. It has a mini observatory on the roof. Guided tours are available.

North America

• Mt Graham International Observatory – Operated by the University of Arizona and situated in the Pinaleño Mountains west of Safford, this observatory offers periodic tours for the public. Reservations required, preferably two or more weeks in advance. Tours depart from the Discovery Park Campus in Safford.
• Kitt Peak National Observatory – Operates several astronomical telescopes plus a large solar telescope. Several guided tours are available, as well as a nightly observation program (reservations required).
• McDonald Observatory
• Fred Lawrence Whipple Observatory – Call ahead for tour information.
• Lowell Observatory – Among other historical achievements, this is the observatory where Clyde Tombaugh discovered Pluto, and you can still see the telescope he used to do it.
• NRAO Very Large Array – Huge, iconic radio telescope array featured in numerous films and TV shows, which still performs cutting edge observations. Self-guided tour allows you to walk around the base of one of the dishes and see into the maintenance facility. Occasional guided tours (see website) give you a closer look.
• Green Bank Observatory – Tucked away in the beautiful West Virginia Mountains, in the middle of the National Radio Quiet Zone, the Robert C. Byrd Green Bank Telescope is the largest fully steerable single dish radio telescope in the world.

South America

While the headquarters of the European Southern Observatory are in Garching near Munich, Germany the observatories are located in northern Chile.

• European Southern Observatory
  • La Silla Observatory, Atacama Desert, Coquimbo Region, Chile.
  • Paranal Observatory, Cerro Paranal, Chile.
  • Atacama Large Millimeter Array/submillimeter Array, Llano de Chajnantor, Chile.

Africa

South Africa

• Southern African Large Telescope – The SALT telescope is largest single optical telescope in the southern hemisphere and among the largest in the world.
• KAT-7, MeerKAT, PAPER, and SKA Africa – The SKA Telescope is the most powerful telescope ever conceived. Its precursor, MeerKAT, is already the most powerful telescope every built. Most of it is to be built in Africa under the auspices of SKA Africa. The African precursor, MeerKAT, is already the most powerful radio telescope every built. The core of the telescope is located near Carnarvon, on the Northern Cape, with more dishes located in Botswana, Madagascar, Mozambique, Zambia, Namibia, Mauritius and Ghana.
• South African Astronomical Observatory – The national centre for optical and infrared astronomy in South Africa. The Observatory has a fascinating history dating back to 1820, which is when our main building was constructed, making it one of the oldest permanent structures in Cape Town. Owing to light and air pollution in the city, most of the actual observing happens in Sutherland in the Northern Cape, about 380 km from Cape Town. Some of the telescopes in Cape Town are still used for outreach and public events.

Namibia

• H.E.S.S. Telescope – One of the leading observatories studying very high energy (VHE) gamma-ray astrophysics.

Universities

The most prestigious universities generally attract excellent scientists and have fine science programs. University campuses are usually open to the public, though permission from guards is sometimes required, and there may be some café or cafeteria or mensa or restaurant or even a university shop on site. Universities usually offer public lectures about ongoing research. Otherwise, their seminars and buildings are reserved for the students and the working faculty including post-doctoral researchers or professors. On weekends or holidays, many universities require special permits to enter. Universities compete on a worldwide basis; hence, they are not ordered by geographical position or alphabetized. Below is a list of the 20 highest-ranked universities according to 2013/2014 QS world university ranking (of course rankings may differ according to year and specific subject).

• Massachusetts Institute of Technology – a private research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts.
• Harvard University – Established in 1636 in Cambridge, Massachusetts, Harvard is the oldest institution of higher education in the United States.
• University of Cambridge – a collegiate research university in Cambridge, England. It was founded in 1209 making it the world's third-oldest university. It includes 31 constituent colleges and academic departments which are organised into six Schools. 90 Nobel laureates count as affiliated.
• University College London – a public research university in London, England. It is based in the heart of London. It was founded in 1826. There are 27 Nobel Prize winners and three Fields Medallists amongst UCL's alumni and current and former staff.
• Imperial College London – a public research university located in London, England specialised in science, engineering, medicine and business. The former constituent college of the federal University of London became independent in 2007. Imperial is locate in Central London. It lists currently 15 Nobel laureates and two Fields Medallists amongst Imperial's alumni and current and former faculty.
• University of Oxford – a collegiate research university located in Oxford, England. Oxford publishes a leaflet Explore the University of Oxford, which contains a map and information on opening times of colleges, museums and other places of interest. The main places of interest are only a few minutes walk from the main rail and coach stations. Oxford open days in 2014 will be on the 2 July, 3 July and 19 September. Due to high demand, many colleges and some departments require advance booking for their events.
• Stanford University – a private research university in Stanford, California founded in 1885. 58 Nobel laureates have been affiliated with the university. The Stanford campus offers sightseeing and educational opportunities for tourists and first-time visitors. There are student led walking tours.
• Yale University – a private research university located in New Haven, Connecticut. Fifty-one Nobel laureates have been affiliated with the University as students, faculty, or staff.
• University of Chicago – a private research university in Chicago, Illinois.
• California Institute of Technology – a private research university located in Pasadena, California, United States. Caltech is a world-renowned research and education institution dedicated to advancing science and engineering. Tours are offered for prospective students on holidays or high school groups. Caltech also offers a self guided walking tour with booklet.
• Princeton University – a private Ivy League research university in Princeton, New Jersey. It was founded in 1747.
• ETH Zürich – This Swiss Federal Institute of Technology is an engineering, science, technology, mathematics and management university. Twenty-one Nobel Prizes have been awarded to students or professors, the most famous of which is Albert Einstein in 1921. It is currently the top-ranked university in continental Europe.
• University of Pennsylvania
• Columbia University
• Cornell University
• Johns Hopkins University
• University of Edinburgh
• University of Toronto
• Ecole Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne
• King's College London (KCL)

Other

• Boltzmann's grave – The Boltzmann equation was originally formulated by Ludwig Boltzmann between 1872 to 1875. It relates the entropy S of an ideal gas to the quantity W, which is the number of microstates corresponding to a given macrostate. In the ideal gas limit it exactly corresponds to the proper thermodynamic entropy.
• Schwinger's grave – The first order correction to the fine structure constant (alpha) is engraved on Julian Schwinger's headstone at the Mt Auburn Cemetery.
• Schrödinger's grave – The Schrödinger equation is a partial differential equation that describes how the quantum state of some physical system evolves with time. It was formulated in late 1925. It is inscribed above his name on his grave site.
• Hofmeyr Skull, The Hofmeyr Skull is a specimen of a 36,000-year-old skull found in the 1950s near Hofmeyr, South Africa. The samples age supports the so-called "Out of Africa" theory that modern humans evolved from Africa.
  • Groote Schuur Hospital, On December 3, 1967, 53-year-old Lewis Washkansky received the first human heart transplant at Groote Schuur Hospital in Cape Town, South Africa. The procedure was performed by Dr. Christiaan Barnard.