Researchers are building what they call the world's first laboratory blast simulator to study how the latest bomb-resistant building materials perform under the forces that tore apart U.S. government buildings in Oklahoma City and Nairobi, Kenya. The $9 million simulator at the University of California, San Diego is being funded by the Technical Support Working Group, a federal organization established to combat terrorism. Frieder Seible is dean of UCSD's Jacobs School of Engineering and the principal investigator on the project.