Yeah, I was disheartened that she didn’t mention what the fallout for them was. The one that was about to defend was probably the most affected out of anyone in this story. The author ended up keeping her grant and got tenure. What happened to the students?

Luckily, they were masters' students, so the damage will be limited to a semester or so at most (in the US, generally a master's thesis isn't the most important part of a degree). If it was a PhD thesis... I don't want to think about that.

Our professor loves to tell the story of how one of his friends in grad school based his thesis on a series of experiments to be run by a mars probe. One morning my professor runs into him and he's just completely panicked. My professor asked what was wrong, and the guy replied "My thesis is a debris field on Mars".

So, it happens

I don’t know. It took me a few semesters to write mine and it was the main graduation requirement. This kind of situation would’ve set me back at least a year and cost me a ton of tuition money. It would’ve been economically and emotionally devastating for me.