I’m deeply amazed at how much help and support he got for free from a bunch of people from one of the most important (and expensive) laboratories in the worldAs a former journalist, it truly is amazing the amount of free information that comes out of America's government, and the vast number of truly helpful people who work there.
I can't count the number of times I didn't understand something I read in a federal document, and was able to pick up the phone and within 15 minutes or so be in touch either with the person who wrote it, or someone who knew the topic intimately. Very often, they would follow-up with stacks of documentation by mail.
And I'm not talking about conversing with public relations people or media people or others who are paid to talk to the media. But regular federal staffers who really just wanted to make sure I understood things.
The Congressional Budget Office, and the General Services Administration stick in my memory as being especially helpful.
Sadly, it's the bad bureaucrats who get all the notoriety, and state/local offices have become markedly worse over recent years, as budgets have been cut and the Freedom of Information Act backfired, turning everything into a firewalled process. But there are still plenty of people out there who remember that every... single... thing... the federal government produces is the property of the people, which is why it's illegal for a federal agency to assert copyright over anything it created with tax dollars.
Again, state and local governments routinely put © notices on everything, as if they weren't paid for with public money for the good of the public.