The Smithsonian Institution has destroyed nude photographs taken decades ago of Yale University students who were unaware the pictures were to be used in the pursuit of a form of science. The science has since been discredited.

After a request from the university, Smithsonian officials emptied more than 100 pounds of photos and negatives into a shredder on Friday at a museum office in Suitland, Md., a Washington suburb.

"All material in the National Anthropological Archives pertaining to Yale University students has been destroyed," said a museum spokesman, Randall Kremer.

The photos went to the shredder with a Yale representative looking on.

"We are delighted that the privacy of the individuals in those photographs will be forever protected," said a Yale spokesman, Gary Fryer.