A Science Lover’s Kind of Town

[lsanderson]

OLD TO NEW The Harvard Museum of Natural History displays ancient bones and generates lightning bolts.
By ETHAN GILSDORF
Published: November 14, 2008

WHEN you run an ice cream parlor down the street from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, you expect your customers to chat about stem cell research or trade theories about neutrinos between licks of burnt caramel. But Gus Rancatore, whose Toscanini’s shop in Cambridge, Mass., is renowned as much for its deep-thinking clientele as for its sundaes, discovered long ago that catering to the technology-minded crowd could have unforeseen advantages. More

TECHNOLOGICAL HOT SPOT

THE MIT Museum (265 Massachusetts Avenue, Cambridge; 617-253-5927; web.mit.edu/museum) costs $7.50 for adults, $3 for children.

The Museum of Science, Boston (1 Science Park; 617-723-2500; www.mos.org) has ticket packages beginning at $23.50 for adults and $19.50 for children. A Boston City Pass (888-330-5008; www.citypass.com) gains admission to the museum, the Harvard Natural History Museum and four other sites for $44 for adults and $24 for children.

The Ether Dome (Bulfinch Building, Massachusetts General Hospital, Grove and Cambridge Streets) is open for self-guided tours (ask for pamphlet at information desk) whenever the amphitheater is not in use.

The Warren Anatomical Museum is situated on the fifth-floor mezzanine of the Countway Medical Library of Harvard Medical School (10 Shattuck Street, Boston; 617-432-6196; www.countway.harvard.edu/). Admission is free.

The Collection of Scientific Instruments at the Putnam Gallery at Harvard (Science Center 136; 617-495-2779; www.fas.harvard.edu/~hsdept/chsi.html) is free. The Mark I computer is on the building’s first-floor lobby.

The Harvard Museum of Natural History (26 Oxford Street, Cambridge; 617-495-3045; www.hmnh.harvard.edu) costs $9 for adults and $6 for children.

Miracle of Science (321 Massachusetts Avenue; 617-868-2866; www.miracleofscience.us) has casual fare like burgers and skewers ($8 to $12) and beer on tap.

Middlesex Lounge (315 Massachusetts Avenue, 617-868-6739; www.middlesexlounge.us) has a lunch and bar menu and serves cocktails.

Toscanini’s (899 Main Street; 617-491-5877; www.tosci.com) serves homemade ice cream, coffee and baked goods, and offers a weekend breakfast.

Mary Chung (464 Massachusetts Avenue; 617-864-1991) offers inexpensive Mandarin and Sichuan dishes, and dim sum on weekends.

The Middle East (472 Massachusetts Avenue, corner of Brookline Street, 617-864-3278; www.mideastclub.com) has four stages for live music; T.T. The Bear’s Place (10 Brookline Street; 617-492-2327; www.ttthebears.com) also has music nightly.

The Catalyst Collaborative@MIT (866-811-4111; www.undergroundrailwaytheater.org/) performs science-themed plays at the Central Square Theater, 450 Massachusetts Avenue.

A hotel convenient to M.I.T. and Central Square is Le Meridien Cambridge (20 Sidney Street; 617-577-0200,; www.starwoodhotels.com), with rates beginning $269.