Feds Spending $880,000 to Study Benefits of Snail Sex

[Cowman]

I honestly don't understand why more people don't get infuriated by this kind of stuff. The military is pulling tuition funding from active servicemen which they were promised, but the feds have money for this shit.

The National Science Foundation awarded a grant for $876,752 to the University of Iowa to study whether there is any benefit to sex among New Zealand mud snails and whether that explains why any organism has sex.

The study, first funded in 2011 and continuing until 2015, will study the New Zealand snails to see if it is better that they reproduce sexually or asexually – the snail can do both – hoping to gain insight on why so many organisms practice sexual reproduction.

“Sexual reproduction is more costly than asexual reproduction, yet nearly all organisms reproduce sexually at least some of the time. Why is sexual reproduction so common despite its costs,” the study’s abstract asks.

Feds Spending $880,000 to Study Benefits of Snail Sex | CNS News

If you weren't such an idiot, you'd realize that so many crazy discoveries that benefit mankind come from obscure research like this. Research on bugs and plants and stuff. Things that weren't even the original intent of the research.

Just because you don't see the justification in the cost, doesn't mean it's not there. There's so many secrets locked away in the natural world.