h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

http://www.bbc.co.uk/h2g2/guide/A641387 This is intended as the basis of a collaborative entry. I hope that other researchers can: Contribute a paragraph about one or more of the sights listed. and/or Suggest other sights anywhere in Europe that would be suitable. and/or Provide general comments. Gnomon has written the paragraphs about sights in Ireland. I think these are a suitable length - obviously, if people want to write much more about individual sights, they can contribute a paragraph here and write a full entry in their own time. Obviously, this will end up very long, but I think it is better to take it as one entry for the moment and split it either before or after getting it through Peer Review. I wasn't quite sure of the cut-off line, but I think sights of engineering/technological interest (bridges, dams, dykes etc) deserve an entry of their own. I have set up a basic page for that, and if people have suggestions of that kind please add them to the thread http://www.bbc.co.uk/h2g2/guide/F79879?thread=151890 I will of course write some of it myself, but i hope that others will pick their favourite places first, and I'll try and cover what's left. Azara

Hiya!

Exams notwithstanding, I'll have a go at the Natural History Museum, London, perhaps, on Wednesday.

I'm one of those lucky who has free access to it, before 4:30pm.

I have been meaning to go to it for the past few weeks, the Wildlife Photographer of the Year is being displayed there... and I haven't missed it for the past 3 years...

As I said before... give me a bit of time, and I'll write

Stay ,
WD

Thanks, Witty Ditty!

I was debating about contacting you individually, but I didn't want to be distracting you if those exams are looming up. I'm glad that you spotted it anyway!

Volunteers so far:
Witty Ditty will cover the Natural History Museum, London
Frogbit is looking at Lyme Regis and its fossils.

I think the simplest way to cover the practicalities is for each contributor to set up a separate short entry for their topic(s). They can include any links they want, and I will copy and paste the Guide ML into the main entry. That's what I did with Gnomon's contribution and it worked well.

Further collaborators are eagerly awaited!

Azara

Frogbit raised the question of length: I'm thinking of sections that are 300-350 words at a *maximum* on any individual sight. Less would be fine! For reference, the three Irish sections are 84, 255 and 181 words long.

Azara

Ok, here I am

The Deutsches Museum (please don't translate as 'German Museum')

The Deutsches Museum is located on the island in the Isar river in Munich and can be reached with Munich's public transportation via the Isartor S-Bahn station and following the signs.

With about 55,000 square metres it claims to be the world's biggest museum of science and technology (I can't prove that, I would have thought of the Smithsonian). Almost any invention or discovery made by engineers, craftsmen or whoever has found a place in there.

Exhibits are either original pieces (like Gottfried Daimler's first car and Rudolf Diesel's engine, a Messerschmidt Me-262), cutaway models like aircraft turbines, or downsized models like the tunnel drilling machine which was used to dig out the tunnels for the subway system). Plus many, many basic models which you can operate in order to get an idea of the basics of electric circuits, mechanics, optics and whatever physical law you could think of.

Areas covered ... anything between sewing machines and spacecraft!

Most famous:
- The museum is very proud of its full-size replica of the Altamira Grotto,
- A must-see is the hall of bridges! There's a big hall devoted to all the means which get you across a river. There are lots of 2m models, plus video boxes, plus experiments which tell you the basic ideas of statics.


Aviation is not deeply covered in the Museum's main building but in the 'Flugwerft Schleissheim' (S-Bahn station: Oberschleissheim). This is a former local airport which has been transformed and expanded to hold aircraft of all sizes and ages (like Otto Lilienthal's experimental gliders, a DC-3 'Rosinenbomber', an F-104 Starfighter (of which the Luftwaffe lost 269 in accidents), a training section from the European Space Laboratory and some MiG fighters which were granted to the Museum after the re-unification.


The time required to see it all is somewhere around two weeks (plus a day or two for the Flugwerft Schleissheim) if your feet don't get tired too soon.


I'm afraid I shot over the 350 words line

Thanks, Bossel!

Whisky has now provided a piece about the Lascaux caves.
Frogbit has written about Lyme Regis.
Demon Drawer has said I can synopsise his entry on Jodrell Bank radio telescope.
I will also give a small paragraph on Kew, which has a full edited entry by Sam.

Any further contributions are welcome!

Azara

Here's another one:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/h2g2/guide/A434675, the History of Electronics Museum, close to Baltimore Washington Airport (BWI), USA

Ooops. That's not in Europe

http://www.bbc.co.uk/h2g2/guide/A679098

The Natural History Museum bit

I know, it's far too long, but that place is far too big

What do you think?

Thanks a million, Witty Ditty!


I really think that this deserves to be submitted to Peer Review as an entry in its own right. Seriously, Whisky has already done this with his contribution on Lascaux, and Frogbit with his entry on Lyme Regis. Frogbit is going to give me a shorter piece on Lyme for the collaboration. Whisky thinks that I should take the first section of his Lascaux entry, and I'll do that at the weekend. (I should have done it ages ago, of course!)

So how about it? Your entry here should fly through Peer Review, it gives a real feel for the museum and has great up-to-date information about access. I'd really like to take a shorter version for the collaboration - I'm afraid that the editorial scissors might dismember it completely if the collaboration gets too long!

Thanks again, and let me know if you decide to put this into Peer Review. By the time the joint effort is ready, it would be already in the Guide and available to link to.

Azara

Hiya!

Right, I may have to do that - I've already consulted Mr Hoovooloo, and there are some pretty glaring errors in it (his knowledge of the Museum far surpasses what little I may delude myself into having), and I think I'm going to hand the entry to him as I think, because of his love and vastly superior knowlege of the place (mine is far more superficial) of the place, I think that he is far more suited to writing an entry on the attraction than I am

...also, I don't have the time at the mo - I'm rushing around like a rushing around thing at the moment

I'm glad you liked it Hope the Collaborative Entry goes well!

Stay ,
WD

ps: is the Science Museum up for grabs? Only if I nab that, it may also turn into an entry of its own right...

for the Science Museum - help yourself! There isn't any edited entry on it already (I haven't found even an unedited one!) so you could go the same route with a full entry for Peer Review and a paragraph for the collaboration.

I'd be delighted if Hoovooloo takes over the Natural History Museum - it sounds as if he has a really deep knowledge of the place.

Anyway, don't put yourself under any pressure about it all - I'd hate the entry to stop being fun and start being a chore.


Azara

Just thought I'd pop by to add my paragraph.

Jodrell bank was the idea of World War II radar technician Sir Bernard Lovell. Initially it was an experiment to see if blips that occured on his radar during the war had actually come from space. In 1957 when it was completed it was the largest Radio Telescope around, i however it very nearly didn't come about as funding was running out. However with the launch of Sputnik by the Soviet Space Agency hastened it's completion as it was the only earth based apperatus that was capable of tracking the first man made satalite. It also intercepted the first pictures from the moon in 1966 from the Soviet's Lunnik lunar lander. Today the original dish is in a sate of decay under a 1970 overlay of new steel panels and Jodrell is an important contributer to NASA's SETI project alongside side the Aricebo telescope in Puerto Rico.

Thanks, Demon Drawer!

I really have to get to work on this one myself, now.....I should have some time over the next few weeks. I'll let you know when things have progressed a bit!

azara

Just to say - Lyme Regis should definately be in by the end of the week. Only 3 months late.
Frogbit.

The Science Museum also has a Foucault pendulum, and a superb static steam engine powered by real steam generated somewhere in the bowels of the building. The basement is a great place, you can see all the services behind perspex walls.

While in london don't forget to take in the dome of St Paul's, designed for Wren by the great Robert Hooke, inventor of the reflecting telescope and father of microscopy. Hooke also designed the Monument. And don't neglect the London Underground - its prosaic purpose masks an incredible technological achievement far ahead of its time.

Further afield, the Anderton Boat Lift is a stunning piece of machinery, and the Caen Hill flight of 16 locks on the Kennet and Avon Canal is pretty impressive as well - both at http://www.britishwaterways.co.uk/site/7wondersofthewaterways

I would mention the Brussels Atomium, the two bridges over the Menai Straits (engineering achievements of considerable quality) and probably the incredible Humber bridge as well. I like bridges!

A visit to Heathrow to see Concorde is also a must.

If in Oxford you have to visit the Oxford Science Museum, home of many of the personal collections of great British paleontologists. The galleries are supported on columns each made of a different kind of stone, polished and labelled. And at the back of the museum is the Pitt Rivers Collection, the private obsession of a man who must have been (a) incredibly interesting and (b) absolutely barking mad.

I've added Demon Drawer's piece about Jodrell Bank to the entry. Thanks, Demon Drawer!

Just Ziz Guy, I've added the Oxford Science Museum as a section, and added what you said about the London Science Museum. I've put your suggestions about the canals, bridges, the Atomium and so on into the companion piece on Sights of Technological Interest (which is going at an even more glacial pace than this one!) Thanks for all the suggestions.


Azara

Germany's equivalent of Jodrell Bank is the station in Wachtberg-Werthhoven (close to Bonn, the former capital), operated by the FGAN which expands to 'ForschungsGesellschaft für Angewandte Naturwissenschaften', or 'research institute for applied sciences'.
Their 100m radio 'teleskope' used to be the world's biggest mobile antenna for some time. Guided tours are available although they aren't advertised on their web site which is http://www.fhr.fgan.de/fhr/c_fhr_home_e.html . Details/schedules should be available by emailing to any of the addresses given there.

Much of their research deals with radar and guess who's running a h2g2 Uni project about that

Would it be better to do this as a University Project? I mean, if you're going to split it up into multiple entries anyway (and presumably crosslink them), it just seems that the Uni is more geared up for that kind of collaboration...

*shrug*
-Lucinda

Why not the University?

I want it to go through Peer Review when it's ready.

and

I'm hopeless with deadlines.

Azara