I visited there in 1999 to interview one of the astrophysicists. He took me to his lab where they had prototypes of the first gamma-ray burst detectors on display in the hall. When I remarked on how easy it was to drive into the base and asked how they keep people out of the interesting parts, he pointed down the hall. There was a floor-to-ceiling turnstile gate that you had to go through to reach a sensitive area. If your badge was not valid, the gate locked until the guards with dogs came to retrieve you. Security is a series of screens. He penetrated the first and flimsiest screen (and probably not really unnoticed). I'd be more impressed and worried if he got into (and out of) the building I saw that was surrounded by 10-foot-high fences capped with razor wire and watched by TV cameras every 50 feet or so.
The Washington Post left out a key element of Levin's experiment and why he wants to do it again. The Viking landers used dextrose, the stuff we and most other lifeforms consume, as bait for possible Mars beasties. He wants to rerun it with dextrose in one chamber and sinstrose in the other. If one and not the other is consumed it's a strong indicator of life since the chemistry of life (as we know it) prefers organics with a specific orientation. If both are consumed, then it indicates weird chemistry, probably inorganic.
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I visited there in 1999 to interview one of the astrophysicists. He took me to his lab where they had prototypes of the first gamma-ray burst detectors on display in the hall. When I remarked on how easy it was to drive into the base and asked how they keep people out of the interesting parts, he pointed down the hall. There was a floor-to-ceiling turnstile gate that you had to go through to reach a sensitive area. If your badge was not valid, the gate locked until the guards with dogs came to retrieve you. Security is a series of screens. He penetrated the first and flimsiest screen (and probably not really unnoticed). I'd be more impressed and worried if he got into (and out of) the building I saw that was surrounded by 10-foot-high fences capped with razor wire and watched by TV cameras every 50 feet or so.
The Washington Post left out a key element of Levin's experiment and why he wants to do it again. The Viking landers used dextrose, the stuff we and most other lifeforms consume, as bait for possible Mars beasties. He wants to rerun it with dextrose in one chamber and sinstrose in the other. If one and not the other is consumed it's a strong indicator of life since the chemistry of life (as we know it) prefers organics with a specific orientation. If both are consumed, then it indicates weird chemistry, probably inorganic.