they spend much of their time laughing their heads off. However, they take their work seriously, and boast of a Bob Rickard story about life on Mars that pre-dated the recent, highly publicized discovery.
Conspiracy theories also abound in FT, hovering like so many lights round a spaceship. "That's probably because there are some very real conspiracies out there," says McNally, seriously. "Irangate, Watergate, any number of mad things the U.S. government has put together. Frankly, governments ask for it because they are by reflex so secretive. Even when there is nothing to cover up they act as though they have something to hide." Simmons adds, "There's one theory that proposes that there is a group of top secret scientists who know that the whole conspiracy belief system is true, but who
