[gilesc]

I'm a student at OUHSC, and her husband, Dr. Janknecht, is one of my professors. Although failing to make a backup is obviously stupid, he is an extremely competent researcher (I don't know her). Clearly, calling the data "a cure" is a bit of hype, but that exaggeration might help in convincing the thief to bring the laptop back.

About computer knowledge in biological research, though -- the state of things is generally abysmal. The average biology Ph.D. can use Excel to find means, SDs, and do t-tests, and that's about it. Even my boss, who specializes in bioinformatics, still uses VB6+MSAccess shudder. Most probably don't know that hard drives CAN fail.

Yet, researchers are fiercely independent and would definitely resist any heavy-handed mandates from campus IT forcing specific OSes or regular backups.