Myself and colleague thought it was pretty funny when we discovered we wouldn’t be allowed to use the step-ladder we had planned on as part of our proposed experimental protocol when collaborating with a Los Alamos National Lab scientist. Why? Because we hadn’t taken the necessary ladder safety course. (“when you get to the top, stop”) Apparently we aren’t the only ones peeved by this sort of thing, and now our shared complaint has made it’s way into Wired of all places.

“Despite this, continuing as normal with experiments in recent years has become more difficult, said Tom Asaki, a mathematical physicist in the X Division. “Paperwork blossomed, training bloomed. I have 30 training classes I have to keep up with. There’s even a ladder-safety training class,” he said. “

Also:

“Foreign nationals can’t work in classified areas — a serious hindrance in a field where so many come from abroad. “

I don’t know about that, but when when we went to see a talk in an area with higher classification, my hosting scientist (or whatever the jargon was) had to follow my Canadian self into the men’s room. He was very nice about it, very apologetic. But he had to do it anyway.