Editorial body
Laboratory documentation is valuable.
It reduces uncertainty.
Records characteristics.
May establish treatment status.
May assist provenance depending on the report and material.
But sometimes the certificate acquires supernatural characteristics.
The stone existed uncertified.
Then paper arrives.
Suddenly everyone stands straighter.
This is not criticism of laboratories.
It is criticism of the psychological hierarchy surrounding documentation.
Source-country documents matter.
Export records matter.
Chain of custody matters.
Laboratory reports matter.
Commercial invoices matter.
The mature system integrates all of them.
The laboratory certificate should therefore join the wider material record.
Not overthrow it.