The world will never run out of tar as long as I am in the lab. I’ve recently uncovered a few novel preparations of black tar. Let’s see, where should we publish? JACS? Angewandte Chemie? Nature? Hmmm. Journal of Poor Results?
Lamentations on Chemistry
Editorials of a Scientist Political
Lamentations on Chemistry 
When truncated corner polyhedral hydrocarbons were all the rage in the early ’70s a grad student desperate to get out could only manage a gooey off-color mess for his target. He walked way to other things.
Synthesis of his target was later published by another. It was gooey off-color mess. If the instrumentation says it’s OK, it might be OK.
I’ve been purifying a monomer that is known to form colored oligomers. My novel input has been to increease the rate of polymerization (%$#&^%). It’s a pisser. But thanks for the encouragement!