We didn't know exactly what was going on, which bothered some people, because it's just some rocks sitting in the desert and we should be able to figure this out. So they did.
That's it. They solved a problem because not knowing the answer bothered them. This is how most science works, it's just rarely this naked.
Iain M. Banks' book Feersum Endjinn contains a similar but more significant phenomenon (clearly inspired by Racetrack Playa). Reason enough to investigate fully.
So, gonna attack the wet-glass-sliding-on-the-table problem next? Measure the film thickness, glass curvature, weight of glass vs contents? Maybe a paper in that too.
Doesn't bother me 'so much'; just enough to spend 30 seconds typing the question. Other than scale the 'science' involved was small. My Aunt left an axe resting in the crotch of a tree 30 years ago; last year the wind broke the tree in half where the axe had grown into the trunk. Anybody going to run out there and calculate all the forces involved, the tensile strength of that tree, the minimum wind required to accomplish the break? Is this 'science' any different than rocks on a flat surface?
Yes, it is different. We can confidently explain the mechanisms that lead to the tree falling down. We could not confidently explain the mechanisms moving the rocks.
Um, horizontal force, low friction? What's left to explain was exactly how that force got applied, and under what conditions the friction got low. So the answer wasn't really physics at all - it was some empirical study I guess.
That's it. They solved a problem because not knowing the answer bothered them. This is how most science works, it's just rarely this naked.