They need to have archives of unprocessed data so any one can try their own processing to evaluate the data in a way they prefer. Let the debate not include data that was processed before anyone else could process it.
Backup drives are cheap. A set of data out of millions of choices is irreplaceable.
Being a fan of sci-fi audiobooks, sucks to hear that, but the guy should’ve known to back up everything regularly to multiple sources. His laptop could’ve crashed instead of being stolen, and there’s no guarantee of the data being recoverable (BleachBit not withstanding).
Lesson of the day
ALWAYS BACK UP YOUR COMPUTER
And that laptop was the only source for Polsterer’s data?
Sorry. I'm skeptical.
Sounds to me like Polsterer’s journal article was way overdue, or else he was afraid his paper might be rejected.
I mean, is it even possible to turn off a university linked computer without seeing a reminder to back up your work?
Change every occurrence of the word “astronomy” in this article with “climate science,” and such a publication would only be viewed as sarcasm/satire.
This approach should be the gold standard for any discipline to qualify as a science. 1) Present the Hypothesis. 2) Openly describe the methods and materials. 3) Publish the results, and the conclusions based on the work. 4) all supporting data, filters, and algorithms must be made openly available before any paper is accepted for publication.
(That would end the careers of the “Warm Mongers.”)
He should have backed up to a interstellar cloud server.
Obviously not very smart if he didn't back up key data he had on his laptop.
Everyone is assuming that this poor guy didn’t back up his work and it got stolen. I think this is a dog ate my homework ploy. His numbers weren’t adding up and they didn’t support his hypothesis. Of course he’s not going to get published with that. Solution: conveniently have your laptop stolen with the only copy of your formulas and data.