Cute paper. And sometimes it ain't all bad.
Way, way back when I helped a friend with his Master's thesis in EE. I took the pictures.
He had developed a new method for making transistors. Had a fairly elaborate setup, and started cranking them out.
It didn't work. About 1 in 10 worked.
He wrote up a paper on how this didn't work, it had been a lousy idea, and the method wasn't worth pursuing.
And then he sold the article for $400 to a journal. Didn't share the money with his major professor, went off to Bell Labs for a VERY illustrious career. Now owns a couple of medium sized companies.
Sometimes it ain't all bad.
Arf