Yes, the data is essentially 1-dimensional and looks like "CCC MMMMMMMM". (Seriously, look at Figure 2 graph H in the paper.) It seems entirely gratuitous to use machine learning to build a SVM classifier to separate the C's from the M's, when it's obvious that the C's are on the left and the M's on the right.

Perhaps the use of machine learning helped to acquire funding, or enabled the researchers to acquire skills for future projects.