Science: Design for Survival?

Washington's first "atom-bomb-proof" building is nearing completion just five miles north of the White House. Surprisingly, it is neither an Air Defense Command center nor a refuge for the President and his staff,* but a new laboratory for the Armed Forces Institute of Pathology, designed to preserve the nation's vital file of military medical knowledge (e.g., 656,000 individual specimens, 6,000,000 pathological slides) and enable scientists to carry on their work despite atomic attack.

A grey concrete monolith, the $7,500,000 laboratory rises five stories (87 ft.) into the air; its three-story basement goes 50 ft. down. There are no windows except at the...