Diving bell at Seacoast Science Center

Summer travelers are likely to end up near one of the zoos, botanical gardens, aquariums, national park or planetariums that dot the planet. Click on Nature.com’s worldwide science museum map to find one.

Or zoom in on New England, where the Boston Museum of Science  is only the start. The Cape Cod Natural History Museum is great for both sunny — see hiking trails — and rainy days. On Friday, kids can walk through an inflatable whale. Plenty for adults too– including an archeology project and library. Home to the Wing Island Bird Banding Station.

Head into Cambridge for the MIT museums, with ongoing exhibits on holograms and a local invention – the Polaroid. Another exhibit focuses on  Berenice ,Abbott, a photographer hired b MIT in the 1950s to “document the principles of physical science – mechanics, electromagnetism, and waves. “For post visit burgers, try the nearby “Miracle of Science.” with a menu modeled after the periodic table. Just up the Mass Ave., find the elegant Harvard Museums of Natural History, with its glass flowers and  21-million specimen zoology collection.  On Saturday, Kim Todd will give a talk about her book Sparrow which “explores the complex history, biology, and literary tradition of the sparrow.”

The Museum of Comparative Zoology is currently comprised of 12 faculty-curators, and five emeriti, who oversee and contribute to 12 specific departments in the museum, including Biological Oceanography, Entomology, Herpetology, Ichthyology, Invertebrate Paleontology, Invertebrate Zoology, Malacology, Mammalogy, Marine Invertebrates, Ornithology, Population Genetics, and Vertebrate Paleontology.

Or head to the water for the New England Aquarium, the New Bedford Whaling Museum or one of the smaller sites, like the Seacoast Science Center in Rye New Hampshire, as pictured here.

View Science Museums in a larger map

View Science Museums in a larger map