Oh, you know:

Actually, the atomic energy lab is before my time. I think the chemistry sets were the first to be cracked down on for safety.

I found this in my brother's boy scout book and wanted to build a crystal radio just like it. My dad took me to an electronics shop, a real one, not Radio Shack, and I pointed at the drawing of the crystal and asked for one. They handed me a packaged crystal. I was a little disappointed, but I did get the radio to work, it could pick up a couple of stations.

I did a little searching to find the store we went to. It's long gone, but I did find this tidbit. Quement Electronics is where my dad took me. It's a check signed by Steve Jobs to buy components for Wozniak's Apple computer prototype.

This was my brain toy as a kid. Meet Merlin.

Holy crap, a cloud chamber. I thought that's usually a university grade piece of equipment.

Erector set

Lego was nerdy when it was a pile of blocks that required creativity. Then it became just a model kit.

Nah everyone had Lego. K’Nex were for the real nerds.

Chemistry sets, science experiment kits, model rockets, pinewood dragsters.

If K'Nex were for the real nerds, who were Erector sets for?

It's essentially just a glass jar with alcohol vapor in it. It's the radioactive source material itself that's the "university grade" part, not the detector.

Although to be fair, you are literally correct. From https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gilbert_U-238_Atomic_Energy_Laboratory :

Columbia University purchased five of these sets for their physics lab.

Listen to the Atomic kid episode on The Dollop, this guy definitely had shit like this lmao :)

Whats it do?

Whats it do

That snap is sooooo satisfying

It just had a bunch of different "games" built in that you could play. Each of the 9 buttons could light up individually and it made beeping sounds, but calling them games involved you having to use a lot of imagination.