Actually we did the heating cycles for the NMR samples as well - and the NMR spectrometers were used by almost everybody in the group so my delay caused the planned schedule to change which contributed to the grade too, I think. The results were more or less the same and I felt unable to decide for the type of motion happening in the crystal (rotation or translation or a mixture of both?). That's why my work didn't meet the expectations.
Also, similar experiments had been done before for a decade and never any signs of aging had shown. I had had some difficulties before. So it was not that probable I would be right about my "new physics". ;)