"at least a year ago"
Right on. Weasel words.
And, what are the chances that the dating of the experiment will be in the report. Ie, it could read something like this:
"Progress report: we discoverd that two samples...[etc. etc. plus lots of scientific lingo]" But omitted is any dating of the experiment.
So Mr. Shane, who I really like from his insightful articles, may have done a great service in eliciting this information.
Put it another way, do you think the report would calrify to the judge "According to tests done over a year ago..." ? I bet not.