The Scientific Traveler

A one-of-a-kind guidebook for planning physics-and-chemistry-themed trips across the U.S.--from the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory in California to the Florida Solar Power Energy Center, from the Titan Missile Museum in Tucson to the Anheuser-Busch Brewery in St. Louis.

In his newest book, the bestselling author offers a stimulating look at the subject of time, blending Chopin, philosophy, Einstein, and modern physics.

Travelers differ.At one extreme are random travelers who see what they accidentally bump into.At the other extreme are the lock-step travelers who follow a banner (or a red umbrella) and look when and where a voice tells them to look. Between these extremes are the guide-book travelers who identify the whereabouts of those sites that interest them and they plan their sightseeing accordingly. If a traveler’s interests are captivated by the arts, guide books can be very helpful. For example, the table of contents of a current guide book for travelers going to G- many has sections on architecture, art, literature, music and cinema.The index gives page references for famous writers, musicians, and artists.Yet, while Germany was a dominate force in physical science during the 19th and into the 20th centuries and while the names and photos of prominent German physical scientists who worked in this period are sprinkled through the pages of textbooks, only one scientist is m- tioned by name:Albert Einstein is identified as the most famous citizen of Ulm.

If you have ever wondered about space travel, now you have the opportunity to understand it more fully than ever before. Traveling into space and even emigrating to nearby worlds may soon become part of the human experience. Scientists, engineers, and investors are working hard to make space tourism and colonization a reality. As astronauts can attest, extraterrestrial travel is incomparably thrilling. To make the most of the experience requires serious physical and mental adaptations in virtually every aspect of life, from eating to intimacy. Everyone who goes into space sees Earth and life on it from a profoundly different perspective than they had before liftoff. Astronomer and former NASA/ASEE scientist Neil F. Comins has written the go-to book for anyone interested in space exploration. He describes the wonders that travelers will encounter—weightlessness, unparalleled views of Earth and the cosmos, and the opportunity to walk on another world—as well as the dangers: radiation, projectiles, unbreathable atmospheres, and potential equipment failures. He also provides insights into specific trips to destinations including suborbital flights, space stations, the Moon, asteroids, comets, and Mars—the top candidate for colonization. Although many challenges are technical, Comins outlines them in clear language for all readers. He synthesizes key issues and cutting-edge research in astronomy, physics, biology, psychology, and sociology to create a complete manual for the ultimate voyage.

As researchers in emerging economies, scientists are often the first foreign visitors to stay in remote rural areas and, on occasion, form joint venture ecotourism and community tourism projects or poverty alleviation schemes between local agencies or NGOs, the local community, and their home institution or agency. They therefore can contribute to avenues for the conservation of natural resources and the development of rural communities as well as influencing the future tourism development through its perceived legitimacy and the destination image it promotes. This book for the first time critically reviews tourism debates surrounding this emerging market of scientific and research oriented tourism. It is divided into three inter-related sections. Section 1 sets the stage of the discourse of scientific research in tourism; Section 2 evaluates the key players of scientific tourism looking particularly at the roles of NGOs, government agencies and university academic staff and Section 3 contains case studies documenting the niche of researchers as travelers in a range of geographical locations including Tanzania, Australia, Chile, Peru and Mexico. The title’s multidisciplinary approach provides an informed, interesting and stimulating addition to the existing limited literature and raises many issues and associated questions including the role of science tourism in tourism development and expansion, the impacts of scientific and research-based tourism, travel behaviors and motivations of researchers to name but a few. This significant volume will provide the reader with a better understanding of scientists as travelers, their relationship to the tourism industry, and the role they play in community development around tourism sites. It will be valuable reading for students and academics across the fields of Tourism, Geography and Development Studies as well as other social science disciplines.

Travelers differ.At one extreme are random travelers who see what they accidentally bump into.At the other extreme are the lock-step travelers who follow a banner (or a red umbrella) and look when and where a voice tells them to look. Between these extremes are the guide-book travelers who identify the whereabouts of those sites that interest them and they plan their sightseeing accordingly. If a traveler’s interests are captivated by the arts, guide books can be very helpful. For example, the table of contents of a current guide book for travelers going to G- many has sections on architecture, art, literature, music and cinema.The index gives page references for famous writers, musicians, and artists.Yet, while Germany was a dominate force in physical science during the 19th and into the 20th centuries and while the names and photos of prominent German physical scientists who worked in this period are sprinkled through the pages of textbooks, only one scientist is m- tioned by name:Albert Einstein is identified as the most famous citizen of Ulm.