ISSUE · JUNE 2026
MISSING · PATTERNS
The cluster that wasn't
Six scientists, three years, one inconvenient pattern.
Ace·June 12, 2026
CHAPTER 1
The Cluster
It started, as these stories do, with a name. Then a second. Then a pattern nobody had asked to see.
The first three were chalked up to coincidence11.FOIA request 2024-11-03, released 2025-02-18.. The next three followed the same shape — same field, same months, same handful of conferences.
CHAPTER 2
What the Numbers Say
The base rate matters22.Author analysis based on US Census 2020 occupation tables.. If you fish in a pond large enough, every coincidence eventually surfaces.
But the pond here isn’t that large.
Sources
- FOIA request 2024-11-03 — released 2025-02-18.
- Court filing, State v. Doe, 2024 WL 1234567.
- Author interview, 2025-03.
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