[AFreeBird]

If not the actual cost to perform the study, then the opportunity cost of not studying something else while you waste time with something implausible.

I understand your point, but if these guys, while in the process of doing something else, observed a phenomena that they were not expecting, that defies the laws of physics as we know them, and they cannot explain it, and it is reproducible; is it not worthy of study?

[Smokin' Joe]

if these guys, while in the process of doing something else, observed a phenomena that they were not expecting, that defies the laws of physics as we know them, and they cannot explain it, and it is reproducible; is it not worthy of study?

Unfortunately, so much of what passes for research nowadays is the molding of data sets to fit pre existing conclusions for the purpose of garnering grant money in perpetuity.

Serendipity is often summarily dismissed as faulty results.