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Review: The Geek Atlas by John Graham-Cumming

Don't leave home without your guide to 128 places of scientific or technological wonder

HEADING abroad? Don鈥檛 forget The Geek Atlas. It will tell you if you鈥檒l be staying near a slice of Charles Babbage鈥榮 brain (London), a suspended from the upper floors of a skyscraper (Taipei, Taiwan), the best place to buy a robotic toilet seat (Tokyo, Japan), or any of the 125 other places of scientific or technological wonder it features.

Nothing is too small (Alexander Fleming鈥檚 penicillin mould) or big (the Galapagos islands). Each entry has a short description, practical visiting information and an explanation of a scientific concept associated with the place. A delightful example is , the road in California where Apple has its headquarters, accompanied by a description of a software bug that is created when two programs get stuck in infinite loops.

My only quibble is that the book is quite UK and US-centric: aren鈥檛 there places where science comes alive in, say, Africa?

John Graham-Cumming

翱鈥橰别颈濒濒测

Topics: Books and art

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