Healthy scepticism is a characteristic of every good scientist, but so too is a healthy sense of humility that the universe contains more than we know. I for one would love to know with greater certainty whether or not this effect exists and, if it doesn't, how whatever data has driven that work is explained.

I can think of at least one source from which the US Government could draw funds to sponsor this work - the sickeningly bloated $700+ billion defence budget. That would be a nice bit of karmic balance.