The second paragraph, immediately afterwards, says:
"Sadly it is not unknown for hyped-up scientific claims to be mistaken or exaggerated - claims of particles going faster than light, gravitational waves from the big bang, and so forth. I count myself a hard-to-convince sceptic. But what is being claimed will be the culmination of literally decades of effort by scientists and engineers with high credentials, and this time I expect to be fully convinced."
ie., Sir Martin Rees (the author), one of the most famous astronomers in the world, is putting his credibility behind this. That matters.
"Sadly it is not unknown for hyped-up scientific claims to be mistaken or exaggerated - claims of particles going faster than light, gravitational waves from the big bang, and so forth. I count myself a hard-to-convince sceptic. But what is being claimed will be the culmination of literally decades of effort by scientists and engineers with high credentials, and this time I expect to be fully convinced."
ie., Sir Martin Rees (the author), one of the most famous astronomers in the world, is putting his credibility behind this. That matters.