"Why did the "researcher" hide the data for 10 years? "

Ah - a couple of Australians recently got the Nobel Prize.

It took many years for their ground breaking work, which involved some serendipity as well as discovering a whole new Genus of bacteria that behaved differently in many ways - hence the need for a new Genus to describe them, to be accepted - they were widely ridiculed at first by the leading 'experts'.

Now we accept that stomach ulcers are NOT "caused by stress, excess stomach acid, etc". The bacteria are held in check, probably even since birth, until the immune system is compromised, often by 'mental stress' or other illnesses, and they then multiply out of control. Nowadays, the accepted treatment is a course of defined anti-biotics, and a few other things, that destroys them and their resultant side effects in a couple of weeks. Taking medications that reduce stomach acid levels, eating mush food, etc are now recognised as nothing more than medieval old wives tales, that really have no effect any more than wishful thinking. My grandfather died back in the early 70s, if this 'discovery' had been made earlier, his ulcers would have been cured.

One guy even infected himself with a isolated preparation of the bacteria, got extremely sick and terrified his wife, then took the cure and regained his health.

These guys knew that they had to 'hide' their 'discovery' until the proof was overwhelming, and then could say - "here is what we did, now repeat the experiments for yourselves and come back and tell us what you found". The 'experts' did, and now these guys who LOOKED at Nature are Nobel Prize Winners - their detractors are not.

Many sincere hard working scientists do not release their findings immediately - look at the nutters who claimed to discover 'cold fusion' and desperately grasped at fame...