The researchers said their findings were "clear-cut" and should lay the vaccine theory to rest.

BBC: NEWS | Health | Vaccine link to Aids 'dismissed'

The difficulty lay in translating the theory into action.

ECONOMIST: Idea

The defense had hoped to use Reichardt to lay the groundwork for its theory that the murders were committed by drug dealers pursuing Resnick, a self-described cocaine user.

CNN: O.J. Simpson trial: Debate over 'Fuhrman Tapes' heats up

Golden, then a staff geologist and now head of deepwater exploration for BP, came up with a theory that massive oil deposits lay just beyond the Continental Shelf in the Gulf of Mexico, in waters 300 meters deep or more.

FORBES: Going deep

But attorneys for Skilling and Lay pounded at Koenig, trying to get him to concede the defense theory there was no company-wide fraud or conspiracy at Enron, but merely the Venn diagram of a few bad corporate apples--such as ex-Chief Financial Officer Andrew Fastow --lots of shaky investors and a brutal market.

FORBES: Lay, Skilling Defense Team Goes On Offense

The theory was that specialists would do a better job of running digital networks than users whose core competencies lay elsewhere.

FORBES: Navy Spending Billions To Make Its Networks Less Secure

Overall, the effect is to give lay readers the illusion that Mr Krugman's perfectly respectable personal political beliefs can somehow be derived empirically from economic theory.

ECONOMIST: Face value