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[uclaLabrat]

Well done! Now I have to go down there and pick up packages. I have to walk through the old hallway where Fermi used to have his labs, just above where the old cyclotron was, and where the basis of the manhattan project was formed.

 

[bobdole369]

bah 2 minutes to late. It looks as if OP is in the library? or is it the northwest corner bldg, and the subject is the observatory at Columbia. Which as noted above is in the green-roofed Pupin Hall. I would be so scared of an old cyclotron in the basement. Do they ever fire it up?

 

[bobdole369]

How do you "forget" about part of a building?

In 1987, Hechtman was expelled from Columbia for keeping stolen chemicals, including uranium-238, chloroform and pure caffeine, in his dormitory room. While exploring the Columbia University Tunnels, he had obtained this uranium from a forgotten part of Pupin Hall that had remained essentially untouched since its involvement in the Manhattan Project. The other chemicals were obtained from Havemeyer Hall. The 1992 edition of Lisa Birnbach's College Book named him as a campus legend for the exploit.

 

[uclaLabrat]

How do you "forget" about part of a building?

One of the more puzzling questions in my life is how this university can have so many amazing scientists and so many inept administrators.

My old building (chandler) doesn't even have hot water. Climate control is barely functional. It's hilarious. The better read was how they were cleaning it out in the 80's and it was virtually untouched, literally the scientist's notebooks were still on the benches, open, and covered in dust. Wish I coulda been there.

 

[uclaLabrat]

bah 2 minutes to late. It looks as if OP is in the library? or is it the northwest corner bldg, and the subject is the observatory at Columbia. Which as noted above is in the green-roofed Pupin Hall. I would be so scared of an old cyclotron in the basement. Do they ever fire it up?

From what I've read, the cyclotron is now mostly deconstructed (somewhere said they came in and tore all of it out in 2004, not sure about the veracity of that).

Pic is of Pupin, I'm in NWC building, Chemistry library is on the campus level floor.

Here's a shot from the lab:

There's another famous building, kinda hard to see, but maybe more impressive. Shouldn't be hard to guess.

 

[Atomic Playboy]

How do you "forget" about part of a building?

Put a sign on the door that says "RESTRICTED ACCESS." That will keep people out for at least a couple decades.

 

[zinfamous]

Well done! Now I have to go down there and pick up packages. I have to walk through the old hallway where Fermi used to have his labs, just above where the old cyclotron was, and where the basis of the manhattan project was formed.

Meh, I was at U Chicago for ~3 years, next to the building where Fermi ran the first self-sustaining nuclear reaction, and where, yes, they also have "highly radioactive abandoned secret tunnels."


And am now a few jumps away from Lawrence Livermore where, well, you know...