It was not based on her observations, but I don't know how they actually figured out their error. I give them some credit for at least admitting the problem,

It was not based on her observations, but I don't know how they actually figured out their error. I give them some credit for at least admitting the problem, rather than just letting her flail away at trying to make something out of worthless data. On the other hand, it was a pretty big disappointment for a postdoc, who of course must produce some publishable results within a pretty short time window.