Analysis of data from previous experiments

[accdd]

Has it ever happened that after a discovery, data from previous experiments were analyzed and it was noticed that there was already some evidence of the phenomenon in question?

 

[Vanadium 50]

If you mean "did someone take someone else's data tapes and reanalyze them and made a discovery the first team missed", I can think of no example. If you mean "did earlier experiments show weak evidence for a later discovery?" Sure. Here's an example from 1970:

That shoulder is actually this particle:

Note the difference in scale.

 

[Baluncore]

Has it ever happened that after a discovery, data from previous experiments were analyzed and it was noticed that there was already some evidence of the phenomenon in question?

Why else would an experiment be done? How much evidence is "some evidence"? The answer must be yes.

At any time, Occam's Razor trims science to the simplest explanation. Each successive refinement better describes reality. Observational data must include the effects of all phenomena yet to be described by science.