It was the chemist, Mark Nelson, who works for pharma, who was convinced they were consciously brewing the beer for its medicinal value. He was the one who had the apparatus to analyze the bones. The anthropologist, George Armelagos, undoubtedly had control over what went into the paper, but not over what came out of his chemist co-author's mouth. Anthropologists spend years learning what can and cannot be reasonably inferred about human behavior and thought. Medical chemists do not.

As the Dutch said while fighting the Spanish: "It is not necessary to have hope in order to persevere."