Oh, Chipmunk! You make me happy. You're talking about what I wanted to talk about at the very beginning!
The chain of custody is amazing! It's one link: me! I'm the scientist, and I'm the discoverer! It's so strange and coincidental/lucky/excellent. The dust has been in my possession under my storage conditions since its discovery and collection!
This never happens, or almost never. If you think of the best example of chain of custody issues, the OJ Simpson trial, you have certain people discovering the blood, other people collecting it, other people transporting it, other people analyzing it, other people storing it. The chain of custody gets long and difficult to document.
Me. I found it. I recovered it. I've been storing it. I could go touch it right now. But I'm really not doing much these days other than seeking a proper collaboration with a materials scientist. No other speciality will do, I think, for the fullest analysis of the dust.
I did a few obvious things, but I have not in any way finished my studies of the dust. I need a better lab to play around with, one that has tools and equipment that I don't have right now. And, honestly, it needs another voice.
My work is standing pretty alone right now. Yes, it goes along very well with the work of two other PhDs (Drs. Wood and Henry-Couannier) but each of us is alone studying things from our own perspective. I need a different pair of eyes on my work, and only a very highly trained set of eyes is going to satisfy me.
I'm putting it up for you all to look at, remember? I'm giving you all the opportunity to check it out, and seeking some of what you've given (although you could dump the snarkiness). I've made a discovery, and if there's obvious reasons why I'm wrong, I want to know about them before I go big time.
Better fall flat on your face in a small way, right?