papers... may be unraveling

[GoodTaste]

Papers are unravelling? What does it mean? Does it mean "papers are revealing something important"? Some nuance here appears to be elusive to me.


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A mysterious company’s coronavirus papers in top medical journals may be unraveling

On its face, it was a major finding: Antimalarial drugs touted by the White House as possible COVID-19 treatments looked to be not just ineffective, but downright deadly. A study published on 22 May in The Lancet used hospital records procured by a little-known data analytics company called Surgisphere to conclude that coronavirus patients taking chloroquine or hydroxychloroquine were more likely to show an irregular heart rhythm—a known side effect thought to be rare—and were more likely to die in the hospital.

Source: Science [FONT=&quot]Jun. 2, 2020[/FONT]
https://www.sciencemag.org/news/202...papers-top-medical-journals-may-be-unraveling

 

[GoesStation]

It's a headline, so it leaves out words that a fluent reader can infer. "Unraveling" means "coming apart". The papers themselves are obviously not unraveling, but some attribute of them is.

What logical inference can you make about that attribute?

 

[GoodTaste]

Then I guess it might mean "points claimed by the papers might be broken down (and spread like s***)."

 

[tedmc]

The word is frequently used with mysteries.

 

[GoodTaste]

The word is frequently used with mysteries.

Do you know what it means?

I guess "A mysterious company’s coronavirus papers in top medical journals may be unraveling" probably simply means "A mysterious company’s coronavirus papers in top medical journals may be inconsistent (in their conclusions).

 

[GoesStation]

Then I guess it might mean "points claimed by the papers might be broken down (and spread like s***)."

You are yet again adding meaning that isn't there, but the first bit is right. The headline means A mysterious company’s coronavirus papers in top medical journals may be losing their authority; the scientific community may be losing its confidence in their conclusions.

 

[Tdol]

Does it mean "papers are revealing something important"?

Quite the opposite- the basis for the claims made is looking more uncertain.