It wasn’t a mistake. These guys made conscious decision to not disclose critical facts to hype up their findings and get on the NYT front page. This is extremely unfortunate because it’s almost becoming a pattern in many scientific fields. Researchers want fame and funding (or even worse get rich quick scheme). They put out claims of revolutionary results while sneaking away tiny little caveats that unsuspecting public might not even notice. They do this with full knowledge that all these doesn’t measure up to acceptable scientific ethics. Just getting on NYT front page means they will have immediate line up of less technical folks with funding and/or offers of higher up jobs. Even if at later date their claims gets busted, it’s mere little embarrassment that don’t get same level of publicity and everyone moves on saying “more work needed” while they have already cashed out from the hype they had created.

Lots of people are playing this game and new people are encouraged to play it when they look at how other incompetent and ethically loose people quickly climbed the ladder. It’s truely a cancer in science.