“Reviews by my office have found award recipients often acknowledge receiving R&D funds for general purposes in press releases, but also largely omit the dollar amount in public documents related to specific projects paid for with the funds from the Pentagon, such as individual published studies or press releases sharing the findings of the studies,” Ernst wrote. A spokesperson for the Department of War told the Daily Caller News Foundation, “As with all Congressional correspondence, the Secretary will respond directly to the Senator” when reached for comment on the studies. The studies included whether “octopus hypnosis” could replace anesthesia, the sleeping habits of elephant seals, the properties of “snail mucus,” “doomscrolling” on Facebook and an effort to “decode and interpret the brain signals of monkeys.” None of the studies outlined their cost to the taxpayers, according to Ernst.
Author: Daily Caller News Foundation
Published at: 2026-02-14 19:38:51
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