this is from last year but i missed this update and have to be that guy and say i said this would happen. in fields like this where people have such an incentive for years of work to pay off and want to make a name for themselves big unbelievable claims are almost always fake
academia incentivizes huge explosive claims especially if others cant dispute them because after working on a huge problem or just studying for a long time its embarrassing to say “i was researching if X was Y and, turns out it is not”. or “i studied Z and figured out nothing”.
this is part of why (aside from ideology) you will always see a perpetual sea of phd papers and books saying “wow we JUST figured out vermeers paintings were really done by his daughter” “wow we JUST figured out this artist isnt who he said he was. have to “figure out” something
this also applies to certain scientific fields and the pressure to figure something out or discover something new to make a name for yourself and justify X years of work but if you point this out people usually have an... adverse reaction
