This implicated another scientific sin, one I was nakedly guilty of: my research had not been peer-reviewed, which was highly unusual. Peer review is both an ancient and modern procedure, a way to legitimize research by independent experts prior to publication. But peer review can take months. So I knowingly skipped that step. It was academic disobedience and a risk to my reputation. But urgency called for it. The research was too important to wait another day.
