We're performing more and more drug testing without really having the infrastructure to support it, and this can result in some very bad outcomes.

I think that a lot of physicians really see drug testing as a fairly simple lab test when, in fact, it is not at all.

It was a surprise to learn just how few physicians use gold-standard practices in their testing. Only a small number actually knew which drugs are detectable on a routine urine drug-test screening panel, and what substances can cause false-positive screens.

It shouldn't be a surprise that physicians do not know how to properly conduct a drug test, because these procedures are not taught in medical school or residency.

The ELIZA test is an involved testing process using sophisticated machinery, and from our inception over 20 years ago, our aim was to provide Third World countries that can't afford machines like that the ability to conduct rapid testing with a simple manual process.

The testing of life support systems will certainly be useful, ... But on the psychological side, the real human factor is not whether people go crazy living in a tin: they don't. It's whether they can put up with the overwork once they arrive on Mars and start a rigorous programme of field exploration.