Columbia Decides To Toss Its Atom Smasher

Columbia University has decided to junk a 70-year-old atom smasher that is the nation’s oldest artifact of the nuclear era, ending weeks of internal debate and lobbying over its fate. Starting this fall, a loose coalition of preservationists at Columbia argued that the machine represented a link to the earliest days of the nuclear era and should not simply be discarded. But university officials questioned some claims about the machine, and said its space was needed for expansion, despite Columbia’s $7 billion plan to enlarge its campus over the next 25 years. Read more at:
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/12/20/nyregion/20atom.html?ex=1355806800&en=b8507eeb75a16101&ei=5088&partner=rssnyt&emc=rss