Historically the seat of the city's intelligentsia, Upper West Side remains an enclave of high-brow arty creatives drawn to the area's world-famous cultural venues, including Lincoln Center and Columbia University. The avenues, lined in bookshops, record shops and café terraces where current affairs and controversial issues are hotly debated to the sound of jazz, opera or world music illustrates this intellectual bent. The museums in the area, however, are all devoted to science or natural history.