But if I was an early-career researcher looking to establish myself, secure funding and maybe a tenure-track position, and I had a nobel-prize-winning discovery up my sleeve, I can't imagine many things that would take precedence.
I mean, obviously whatever happened happened. It just seems strange to simultaneously claim to have discovered something 24 years ago, and to have been rushed into publishing prematurely.
There was no one who would be willing to fund their research into a room temperature semiconductor? Even though they had a sample that passed the basic tests?
You make it sound like that is easy while not knowing much about them or their circumstances. There still isn't. Look at their shitty rented lab. Obviously there are aspects to their situation that not everyone here is aware of.
the world is filled with quacks looking for funding for superconductor research, I can definitely imagine that 20 years ago it would have been difficult to find funding for blue-sky research in superconductivity even with a modest amount of evidence in-hand
> mean, obviously whatever happened happened. It just seems strange to simultaneously claim to have discovered something 24 years ago, and to have been rushed into publishing prematurely.
Probably there was a big team. Somebody with a low rank worked his/her ass off on the breakdown, but then noticed their names would be filled off or put only in acknowledgements section, to be replaced with some senior lab manager that did just administrative paperwork and barely knew the work. So they said screw it and just published whatever they could before the laurels were stolen.
