I don't think that's "hedging". Indeed, they're arguing that observed branching angles can distinguish wet climates (72 degrees) from dry climates (maybe ~45 de

I don't think that's "hedging". Indeed, they're arguing that observed branching angles can distinguish wet climates (72 degrees) from dry climates (maybe ~45 degrees). > Also interesting are the exceptions. In arid places like New Mexico, networks branch narrowly, at around 45 degrees. That second angle “took me a long time of trying and failing” to explain by theory, Seybold said. They still haven’t solved the specific angle, but the team argues that in arid regions, occasional surface runoff carves steeper channels with narrower junctions. > That then opened up a new possibility. If wet climate might brand river networks with the 72-degree signature of Laplacian growth, could that signature’s absence also reveal the existence of a different kind of climate?