Take caution. Extraordinary claims require extraordinary evidence.
> The mother's age had no impact, and daughters seemed to be immune.
When a significant effect is seen in only one of four comparisons (maternal vs paternal, sons vs daughter), then you have to suspect that the effect might be spurious.
Here is one answer in the form of an analogy -- but I preface this by saying that comparing the set of all academic science with the set of all industry science is fraught at best -- academic science is to cottage industry as industrial science is to factory production.
A related consideration is that training grad students and post-docs is a key component of most academic science. The requirements of training often limit the size of teams working on a single project with the PI-trainee relationship dominating the organizational structure.
As the "PI" of a science startup R&D team, I can start and stop new projects at will with varying team sizes and mandates without the consideration that my folks need to produce a body of published work to further their careers.
I can't tell if the author is describing Iron Gall ink (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Iron_gall_ink) but it's not especially hard to make in small quantities if you have the ingredients.
Outside of the germline, C. elegans does not undergo cellular division in the adult stage. There is a fixed developmental pattern, with exactly 959 cells in the adult hermaphrodite. Also, the connectivity map of the entire nervous system is known.
> The mother's age had no impact, and daughters seemed to be immune.
When a significant effect is seen in only one of four comparisons (maternal vs paternal, sons vs daughter), then you have to suspect that the effect might be spurious.