Potamopyrgus antipodarum, the New Zealand snail under scrutiny. Image © Bart Zijlstra / http://www.bartzijlstra.com via University of Iowa.

At first, it may sound completely ridiculous: a four-year, $876,000 grant from the federal National Science Foundation (NSF) to study “snail sex.”

That’s how a conservative news website branded it – wrongly. And it’s how two University of Iowa researchers and their California colleague found themselves at the center of the latest debate on government’s role in supporting basic science research, a debate that started with a similar attack on duck penis research. Read the rest of this entry »