[joedevon]

Some people think it was done knowingly, to make a name for Curry, the grad student who made the request. Others say that because the Swiss guy who was trying to get a core sample which is non-destructive, was unable to do so before heading back to Switzerland, Curry genuinely wanted to do this for science. At some point I found a link where some students of his defended him and said it had a profound impact on Curry for the rest of his life.

The thing is, they wanted to study the rings because they thought it was really old.