See this is the problem with press releases of scientific research. If they had said "we think we've got it", people would be clamoring that the Higgs boson particle was found, when it wasn't. If they say (as they did) that they saw signs of it but are hesitant to make claims of its existence until they have firm proof, people make ignorant statements like the one above.
A common misperception. Humour on HN isn't verboten as such, it just needs to be carefully cloaked in some sort of substantive contribution to the discussion. It's empty responses, not funny ones, that draw the downvotes. The kind of humour that predominates on other websites, unfortunately, happens to be of the empty variety and so recent immigrants from there tend to draw flak for one-liners that don't convey any information.
SNR is prized and cultivated around here. That doesn't rule out humour per se, but it does considerably shrink the set of humourous responses that are appreciated.
It has nothing to do with humor, it's about noise. You can be funny while also contributing to the conversation, but posting jokes instead of contributing will tend to get down voted.
Welcome to HN. HN is, generally, a long-form place. When you express full ideas, it's appreciated. When you express non-obvious ideas, it's appreciated. And when make meme-oriented jokes that rely on willfully misunderstanding science, technology, or the human endeavor, you can expect to get downvoted.
It's a place with its own set of customs, and I think you'll like it as you become more familiar with them.
How should we make it attractive for them [young people] to spend 5,6,7 years in our field, be satisfied, learn about excitement, but finally be qualified to find other possibilities?" -- H. Schopper