Whelp ... I think this is the first time in my career: had to write to a collaborator who had an almost ready paper and tell them that I think they measure the detector properties and not the celestial source.
I hope I phrased it nicely.
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@vicgrinberg
Ouch, that can't be fun!
Any clear reason for why it was caught late? The "good" option is some new calibration changed understanding, the bad one is they worked very isolated and didn't ask for help or review...
@tobychev the second - but it was also a straightforward thing (they thought) and a super short paper plus lots of pressure of the US tenure track, so I kinda see why. Also some change that the closest collabs on the paper did not catch it - I worked on something similar in the past, so it was obvious to me.