Touring Cambridge

So last night a bunch of us went to see fireworks at Parker's Piece. It certainly wasn't the best firework show I have ever seen, but it was perfect for a night in Cambridge. They actually had a whole carnival set up...I guess that was my version of the feast this year. After that some of us went to a club called Fez. It was actually alot of fun depite my aversion to dancing and my lack of ability to relax and enjoy myself in a place where there is dancing. The music was a little too loud...my ears are still ringing which I'm not too pleased about. We left around 1:30 and I went back to my room planning on going to bed. I ended up watching Killers, which was surprisingly good, until after 4:30 and then I went to bed as it was getting light out.

Despite my lack of sleep, I was up and out by ten this morning because I had big plans for the day. I wanted to do some Cambridge sightseeing since I haven't had a chance to do so since I've been here. So I started off my tour by going to Bene't St. to take some pictures of things I have already seen but haven't taken pictures of yet. I even took a picture of the hideous Corpus Clock. I then decided to skip the Fitzwilliam Museum for the time being and went down to 22 Fitzwilliam St. to take pictures of Darwin's old flat. I then headed to Downing St. to cover as many musuems as I could. I went to the Sedgwick Museum of Earth Sciences, University Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology and the University Museum of Zoology. The Sedgwick Museum had some rocks brought back by Darwin and a really nice mineral collection, but other than that it was more of a place for C.B. than for me. I almost didn't go to the Archaeolgy and Anthropology Museum, but I'm so glad I decided to go. They have a special exhibit there this summer called "Assembling Bodies". There were some fun interactive activities like listening to various heartbeats and diagnosing the murmurs. And there were some weird things too like cast hugs which you are meant to pick up and hug in order to feel like someone is hugging you. Very strange. There was also some brain imaging stuff and a book about the Human Genome Project that showed the sequence of Chromosome 1 which has 247199719 base pairs. The exhibit is catalogued online so here's the link for anyone who might be interested in it (by which I mean Nick and Sarah )...http://maa.cam.ac.uk/assemblingbodies/

Then I headed over to the Zoology Museum. The only thing I really wanted to see here was some of Darwin's collection. They had his beetle box in which he collected all the beetles he found. There is a funny story about his beetle collecting in his autobiography..."I saw two rare beetles and seized one in each hand; then I saw a third and new kind, which I could not bear to lose, so that I popped the one which I held in my right hand into my mouth. Alas it ejected some intensely acrid fluid, which burnt my tongue so that I was forced to spit the beetle out, which was lost, as well as the third one." In a letter he describes the beetles..."I could not bear to give up either of my Carabi, & to lose Panagæus was out of the question, so that in despair I gently seized one of the carabi between my teeth, when to my unspeakable disgust & pain the little inconsiderate beast squirted his acid down my throat & I lost both Carabi & Panagus!" I'm sure not too many of you will have found that very entertaining but I thought it was pretty funny.

I concluded my morning tour of Cambridge sites of scientific importance with a stroll down Free School Lane to see the site of the old Cavendish Lab which was founded in part by James Maxwell (developer of electromagnetic theory) and which is where J. J. Thomson discovered the electron and where Watson and Crick discovered DNA. 29 Cavendish researchers have won the Nobel Prize. Finally, I climbed the tower of Great St. Mary's. There were amazing views of King's and the rest of the city from the top. I could even see the University Library which I really want to visit. Unfortunately, it is really difficult to get access to that library. Students generally have to show documentation from theirs tutors indicating that they need access to the library for research purposes and full time undergradutes don't even get the right to borrow books until they are in their 3rd year. I spent the afternoon playing ultimate frisbee on Jesus Green in the unbearable Cambridge heat. It was actually alot of fun despite the heat. Now I'm looking foward to a relaxing evening.