After a brief pause, we’re back in the chart room with a first entry for Canada. Eva Amsen has specced out this scientific map of Toronto, a city she recently left for Cambridge (another in our growing empire of mapped cities).

View Science in Toronto in a larger map

“The problem with Toronto,” says Eva, “is that it’s not the capital, so most important national institutions are actually based in Ottawa. Also, a lot of great things have no physical location at all, such as the science festival, and some lecture series.”

That said, there’s still plenty to hold the attention. The University of Toronto is one of the top 30 universities in the world and receives more funding than any other higher education establishment in Canada. The university’s scientific ouput has included early research into insulin and stem cells, the first practical electron microscope, and development of multi-touch technology now familiar from iPhones and iPads. Eva also lists other research institutes, places of cultural significance and major pharma companies such as GlaxoSmithKline.

“I [also] learned that the concept of consistent global time-zones was invented in Toronto,” says Eva. "Although the history website files that under “science”, I don’t really think it is (more business/economics/practical) so despite it being really awesome, I left it off the map.

Another omission is one of Toronto’s greatest scientists. “Toronto doesn’t seem to like its living scientific Nobel Laureates… Banting and Macleod (insulin discovery) are all over the place and have everything named after them, but poor John Polanyi (”University of Toronto chemist":https://www.utoronto.ca/jpolanyi/, Nobel Prize in Chemistry 1986 for work done in Toronto), doesn’t even get a plaque, and probably just because he’s still active and alive. So maybe Polanyi deserves a shout-out in lieu of being on the map."

And a final pop-cultural sidenote: the Baldwin Steps, marked as a prehistoric lake border (blue marker off Davenport Road), are the place where Scott Pilgrim defeats Lucas Lee in the currently running Scott Pilgrim movie.

The map is a starting point, rather than a finished product. If you’d like to nominate other places in Toronto for inclusion, please leave a comment below.

If you’d like to put together a map of science in your own city or region, please contact Matt Brown (i.am.mattbrown – at – gmail.com) for assistance.

Previous maps

Cambridge, UK

London

Malta

Münster

New York

San Francisco

The sixth map in our series shows the city of Cambridge, one of Europe’s powerhouses of science. At the heart of this small city is one of the world’s oldest and most eminent universities. Indeed, the University of Cambridge can lay claim to more Nobel Prizes than any other institution, with 87 affiliates receiving a prize (74 of them for scientific endeavours).

View Cambridge Map of Science in a larger map

The roll-call of famous Cambridge scientists is also peerless. Isaac Newton, of course, performed many of his world-changing experiments and theoretical leaps while affiliated to the University, and held the Lucasian Chair of Mathematics from 1669 to 1702. That position has since been held by the likes of Charles Babbage, Paul Dirac and Stephen Hawking.

But the list just keeps going and going. This is the city where isotopes and the electron was discovered, both courtesy of J. J. Thompson. It is the home of the Cavendish Laboratory, where such luminaries as James Clerk Maxwell, Lord Rayleigh, Ernest Rutherford, Max Perutz and Dortothy Hodgkin made their mark. And, most famously of all, the double-helical structure of DNA was first elucidated by James Watson and Francis Crick. Throw in John Herschel, Charles Darwin, Niels Bohr, Alan Turing, Florey and Chain, Hans Krebs and Frederick Sanger, and it seems like almost every important scientist in history passed through Cambridge at one time.

The map, created by Michelle Brook, does a good job of representing the scientific topology of Cambridge. Michelle has picked out all the scientific departments of the university, as well as the cloud of important institutes and organisations who cluster in the city. She’s also highlighted (in blue) a large number of museums and cultural institutions concerned with the sciences. And, of course, any visitor to Cambridge should seek out the Eagle pub (marked on the map), where Watson and Crick announced that they’d discovered ‘the secret of life’.

Although this map is packed with detail, we welcome additions (and any scientific trivia concerning Cambridge) in the comments.

If you’d like to put together a map of science in your own city or region, please contact Matt Brown (i.am.mattbrown – at – gmail.com) for assistance.

Previous maps

London

Malta

Münster

New York

San Francisco

Today’s map comes from Jeffrey Lancaster, a graduate student at Columbia University.

View Science in NYC in a larger map

As for so many other fields of human endeavour, New York has long been a world city for science. The city’s many leading universities and institutes have generated numerous Nobel Prizes, and there’s even a monument to winners of the prizes in Theodore Roosevelt Park.

As well as the world-famous institutes such as Columbia, Brookhaven and the Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Centre, Jeffrey has also picked out unusual sites of geological interest, such as Greenwood Cemetery and exposed bedrock in Central Park.

NYC also has much to offer on the cultural side. The World Science Fair, inaugurated by local boy Brian Greene, is held here annually and this year included appearances from Stephen Hawking and, of all things, the James Webb Telescope. The American Museum of Natural History, meanwhile, will be famous to people the world over thanks to its starring role in the film Night at the Museum. The map also gives a good reason why scientists should visit the Metropolitan Museum of Art.

The map is very much a starting point – there’s plenty more to add. We welcome additions (and any scientific trivia concerning NYC) in the comments.

If you’d like to put together a map of science in your own city or region, please contact Matt Brown (i.am.mattbrown – at – gmail.com) for assistance.

Previous maps

London

Malta

Münster

San Francisco

We continue our series of maps with this guide to the scientific highlights of Malta. The Mediterranean islands are not usually regarded as a hotbed of science but, as the map suggests, the archipelago has plenty to offer – from research labs to natural reserves.

View Science in Malta in a larger map

The map was created by sisters Ann and Cecilia Fenech, who are from Malta. Most facilities (libraries, dark blue; councils, light blue; universities and research institutes,turquoise; and museums, red) are concentrated around the capital city Valletta, on the east coast. As you move further out, laboratories and biotech companies (yellow) proliferate. The north and west of the islands are the least populated, and this is where most of the nature reserves (purple) are located.

As Ann notes, the most famous scientist from Malta is probably Sir Themistocles Zammit, who discovered the source of undulant fever (Brucellosis) as unpasteurised milk. “As regards science in Malta,” she says, “the country mainly needs to rely on human resources (not much in the way of natural resources) [and] there is a lot being done to attract companies with favourable legislation. [Malta] also makes use of the sea so there is quite a lot of aquaculture/fish farming going on (the Malta Fisheries Centre is marked on the map). There are also a number of research groups making a name for themselves such as the Auxetic group at the university of Malta.”

Our thanks to Ann and Cecilia for putting the map together. As with all of these maps, this initial posting serves as a starting point rather than a fait accompli. We welcome additions (and any scientific trivia concerning Malta) in the comments.

If you’d like to put together a map of science in your own city or region, please contact Matt Brown (i.am.mattbrown – at – gmail.com) for assistance.

Previous maps

London

Münster

San Francisco

As many of you will have seen, we’re curating a series of Google Maps showing key scientific locations in cities around the world (so far: London, Münster, San Francisco). We’re very keen to add further locations, and are hoping a few of you will relish the idea of putting such a map together for your own city (or region). If so, here’s a recipe for creating your map.

Creating a map

1. Before you start, email Matt (i.am.mattbrown – at – gmail.com) to check no one else has the city covered.
2. You’ll need a Google account. If you haven’t got one, create one. If you have, log in and go to Google Maps.
3. Once the maps page loads, click ‘My maps’ up in the light-blue band near the top.
4. Click ‘Create new map’ and give it a name (e.g. ‘science in XYZ’) and brief description.
5. You should now see three editing tools in the top left corner of the map
6. The hand shape is to drag the map around.
7. The pin shape lets you place a pin in the map. Give that a try now, by clicking the pin, then clicking on a scientific location in your region. Once it’s in place, a dialog box will appear asking you for a description. You’ll also then see a ‘rich text’ link in the dialog box – this allows you to make text bold, italic, insert pics, etc. You can also change the style of the pin by clicking the pin icon in the dialog box.
8. The zigzag line lets you draw lines on the map of different thickness and colour. This might not be of much use for current purposes, but you might consider it for scientific ‘trails’ or walks. This tool (using the dropdown arrow) also lets you draw a shape like a square or oblong. It will fill the shape with a colour of your choosing. Again, perhaps best avoided for current purposes.
9. The map will autosave after every few minutes. But if you want to take a break at any point, just hit ‘save’ over on the left to make sure.
10. Once you’re happy, email Matt with a link to let him know the map is ready. To get the link, click the ‘Link’ text on the extreme right and copy the code from the top box.

Notes on content

What to include in your map will depend on the peculiarities of your city or region. For example, if there are hundreds of biotechs you may wish to leave them off, or only include the top 10. Likewise, if there are a handful of historic sites pertinent to science then include them all. If there are hundreds, then cherry-pick the most interesting/important. You can use different coloured pins for different types of institution. The suggested schema would follow that of the London map:

Red = museum

Green = learned society

Turquoise = university/college

Purple = publishing/library

Blue = historic site

(biotechs were left off this map, but could be given another colour)

After creation of your map, we’ll publish it on Nature Network’s Schemes and Memes blog. You should keep an eye out for comments and update the map in light of any reasonable suggestions. The idea is that the maps are ‘community generated’ rather than initially authoritative and comprehensive.

And that’s it. For anything more complex, get in touch with Matt.

The latest map in our series tackles one of the true world capitals of science: San Francisco and the surrounding area. With centres such as Stanford, NASA Ames, Berkeley and UCSF few areas on the planet have such a rich concentration of top research facilities. As Jo Scott shows in her map, SF is also home to numerous museums and public spaces for science, as well as the inevitable Nature office.

View Science in San Francisco in a larger map

Jo has featured around 30 locations, with museums in red, institutions in green, universities in pale blue, publishers in purple, science cafes in blue and miscellaneous sites in yellow. She’s left off biotech companies and many private research institutes as there are simply too many. She’s also focused on SF city itself, but has included Stanford, Berkeley and one or two other major locations for interest. As UCSF and SFSU are campus universities, she’s listed every campus, but not every building within that. If you think Jo’s missed anything important, or you fancy having a go at adding all the biotechs, let us know in the comments.

We’re keen to build up a series of maps showing the scientific highlights of cities around the world. If you’d like to put one together for your own area, please do get in touch in the comments below. Making a Google map is really straightforward, and we’re happy to help.

Previous maps

London

Münster

The North-West German city of Münster may be relatively small (population 270,000), but it packs an academic punch with eight universities/colleges and 48,500 students (all figures from Wikipedia).

In the second instalment of our series mapping scientific cities, Bastian Greshake and Juri Hößelbarth plot the key locations for scientists in their home town.

Science Map Münster auf einer größeren Karte anzeigen

As you can see be zooming out, most of the University of Münster’s buildings (red) and other institutes (blue) are located to the West of the city. Museums (yellow) are largely central or South-West. One additional pin (green) locates the offices of scientific publisher Monsenstein und Vannerdat OHG.

Bastian welcomes suggestions for further additions to the map, so please comment below if you have ideas. Likewise, take another look at our London science map if you know that city well and might have places to add. Either map acts as a handy guide to scientific life in these cities for anyone travelling to a conference or setting up as a student or researcher.

We’d love to build a series of such maps, so please get in touch if you’d like to contribute. The maps are easy to put together and we’re happy to offer guidance if you’re new to Google Maps.

We scientists travel around a fair bit. But all too often, we fail to venture beyond the conference centre or, at best, head straight for the ‘must see’ tourist attractions in the given city. Wouldn’t it be good if there was a guide to scientific culture for all the world’s big science cities?

Well, this map of London is a first footstep in that direction. We’ve started mapping all the museums (red), institutions (green), universities (turquoise), publishers (purple), business locations (yellow), and plaques (blue) related to science. There are still a few to add (particularly with reference to the final three categories), but it’s ready for a play. Let us know in the comments what we’ve missed. (Note, also, that purely medical museums/institutions are omitted for the sake of clarity – there are just too many of them in London.)

View Science In London in a larger map

For other cities: we’d love to build up a collection of these maps. So, a call to action. If you want to share the scientific wonders of your own city, speak up in the comments. These maps are easy to put together in Google Maps, but we’ll be happy to talk you through it if you’re new to the software. As well as providing a handy resource, you’ll no doubt find out a fact or two about the history and culture of your own city – never a bad thing.