In UFO arcana, one of the figures claiming a whistle-blower’s knowledge of a secret US program to reverse-engineer recovered alien technology is a man named Bob Lazar. Here’s how Lazar has told the story: As a physicist educated at MIT and Caltech, he was hired by the US Navy in the 1980s to work as a technician at “S-4,” a subsidiary of Area 51. By his account, the facility contains nine recovered flying saucers; in addition, Lazar has claimed glimpses of alien cadavers and briefings on human contact with the Zeta Reticuli star system.