For Daniel Wichs, a cryptographer at Northeastern University and a coauthor of the new paper, that seemed too good to be true. Around 2011, he started trying to prove that this kind of scheme was impossible. “I was convinced that there’s no way that this could be done,” he said.

But it seems as if Louisa May Alcott may have been more productive then previously thought. Max Chapnick, a postdoctoral researcher at Northeastern University in Boston, believes he’s found previously unknown material that can be attributed to her.

“Frankly, this level of inconsistency and confusion will cost lives,” said Leo Beletsky, a professor of law and health sciences at Northeastern University in Boston. “The risk of overdosing is burden enough. People looking for [Narcan] shouldn’t face the additional burden of having to ask five people to find a life-saving product.”

Nada Sanders, distinguished professor of supply chain management at Northeastern University, believes these crises won’t be resolved any time soon.

Max Chapnick, a postdoctoral teaching associate at Northeastern University, believes he found about 20 stories and poems written by Louisa May Alcott under her own name as well as pseudonyms for local newspapers in Massachusetts in the late 1850s and early 1860s.

Max Chapnick, a postdoctoral teaching associate at Northeastern University, believes he found about 20 stories and poems written by Louisa May Alcott under her own name as well as pseudonyms for local newspapers in Massachusetts in the late 1850s and early 1860s.

“The easy question to answer is, ‘Are you being transparent? Are you levelling with the public about who you are?’” said Dan Kennedy, a professor at Northeastern University’s School of Journalism in Boston.