The Republicans are the ones who think "volcano monitoring" is a ridiculous expense, and who regularly mock perfectly legitimate and useful research because the

The Republicans are the ones who think "volcano monitoring" is a ridiculous expense, and who regularly mock perfectly legitimate and useful research because they happen to appear a little weird. Like the "shrimp treadmill" research that was purported to have cost $3 million and been useless research, but actually cost under $100 and was described by the scientist like this: "Simply put, my colleagues and I were studying how recent changes in the oceans could potentially affect the ability of marine organisms to fight infections—an important question, given that the amount of bacteria a shrimp is able remove from its body is directly related to how much bacteria could potentially end up on seafood-filled plates. And since shrimp are active animals in nature, it was logical to study the immune response of shrimp during activity." "It is disingenuous for the Republican-controlled House Committee on Science, Space and Technology to promote the idea that scientists are wasting millions of taxpayer dollars to run shrimp on treadmills based on a 30-second video clip. Given that every teaspoon of seawater can contain millions of bacteria, it does not take a mental giant to understand that the health of marine organisms and the safety of the seafood we eat are closely related. The health of the organisms that inhabit the largest ecosystem on the planet and the potential bacterial contamination of the food we eat are serious and important questions. I, like many of my colleagues, are deeply concerned by the minimization and politicization of our work."