It could be against university rules, except it's not because President Siebert said so. It couldn't be "against the law" unless it was government funds, rather than some kind of private foundation grant.

It was played as if President Siebert didn't care and just wanted to pass off the job to Leonard.

@znexyish said:

It was played as if President Siebert didn't care and just wanted to pass off the job to Leonard.

He didn't; just as long as the money is spent (within guidelines)--no one wants to be caught with unused funds.

The thinking is that if you didn't use it--then you really didn't need it in the first place. This could make it harder to justify X-number of dollars to the beancounters when you submit your budget for the next year.

Anyone who has ever worked where end-of-budget-year funds must be burned off probably got an extraout of this storyline.

Siebert didn't want to be "the bad guy" to anyone who requested the money, and he had no project of his own so there was no selfish reason to keep that task for himself. Since Leonard was able to spend the money basically on himself, he didn't really care about being "the bad guy" to anyone else, and he doesn't have any kind of "political" position like Siebert does.

Didn't Leonard's lab already have a fancy laser in a previous episode. I know he had something that he and Howard cooked and melted stuff with.

Yes and he probably has several lasers already, but this one is better, has more features, probably more power... And apparently cost a lot more too.

@znexyish said:

Didn't Leonard's lab already have a fancy laser in a previous episode. I know he had something that he and Howard cooked and melted stuff with.

Don't quite remember; but are you talking about the episode where Leonard makes the beast-with-two-backs with that $20M old lady donor?

There was also an episode ("The Holographic Excitation") where Leonard shows Penny some holograms - using lasers - and some other stuff, such as the "levitating" steel ball. And they have sex in the lab, apparently the first time Leonard ever did that.

I confused a Leonard moment with a Howard and Raj moment but I am sure that Leonard will do a similar thing with his new laser.

Raj Koothrappali: Nice of you to let us use the university's new hydraulic thermoforming press.

Howard Wolowitz: Yeah. this baby set the university back 175 grand.

Leonard Hofstadter: That's three minutes. Let's see what we got.

Raj Koothrappali: Oh, yeah! That is one great panini.

Episode - The Infestation Hypothisis

They've already discussed using lasers to heat Cup-O-Noodles but I don't remember which episode.

According to Google it was Season 1 Episode 3 – The Fuzzy Boots Corollary.

But it was Leslie Winkle doing it.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7agk3LFbcNI

@FormerlyKnownAs said:

@znexyish said:

Didn't Leonard's lab already have a fancy laser in a previous episode. I know he had something that he and Howard cooked and melted stuff with.

Don't quite remember; but are you talking about the episode where Leonard makes the beast-with-two-backs with that $20M old lady donor?

Was it 'The Benefactor Factor' (season 4 episode 15)?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZdaD1jajjZk

Well it looks like the gang has been using very expensive equipment to cook and melt very inexpensive things.

But they (probably) paid for the cup-o-noodles etc. They didn't pay for the lasers or the hot press or whatever, nor do they pay the electric bills to run them.