US News

Watchdog slams science group for wasting money on Jell-o wrestling, shrimp treadmills

WASHINGTON – This science isn’t just weird – it’s expensive!

The National Science Foundation squandered more than $3 billion in taxpayer money on antics including Jell-o wrestling and skinny-dipping parties at its Antarctica research station, a new report revealed today.

Sen. Tom Coburn (R-Okla), one of the chamber’s top waste watchdogs, issued the shocking report that exposed the billions of dollars NSF lost to fraud and mismanagement or spent on bizarre experiments.

The report found that at the Antarctic McMurdo research station, which part of a $451 million a year polar research project, NSF employees organized a Jell-o-wrestling event and nude “polar bear plunge” party.

After organizer of the wrestling matches was fired, he complained in an email that the NSF were “fun Nazis” and fired him for “having harmless jello wrestling,” according to the report.

Back in the United States, as much as $58,000 in taxpayer funds were blown by a senior executive who spent at least 331 days looking at pornography on his government computer and chatting online with nude or partially clad women.

In another case, two romantically involved NSF employees went on 47 get-a-ways during an 18-month period that cost taxpayers $144,152.

The report also showed that the foundation blew wads of cash on harebrained research project, including:

— Having shrimp walk on tiny treadmills to measure the impact of sickness on crustaceans;

— $80,000 study on why the same teams always dominate March Madness;

— $315,000 study suggesting playing FarmVille on Facebook helps adults develop and maintain relationships;

— $1 million for an analysis of how quickly parents respond to trendy baby names;

— $50,000 to produce and publicize amateur songs about science, including a rap called “Money 4 Drugz,” and a misleading song titled “Biogas is a Gas, Gas, Gas”;

— $2 million to figure out that people who often post pictures on the internet from the same location at the same time are usually friends; and

— $581,000 on whether online dating site users are racist.

Coburn, who is a physician, noted the important work done by the NSF, including shepherding advances such as the Internet, cloud computing, bar codes and magnetic resonance imaging technology.

“Unfortunately,” he lamented, “in some ways NSF has undermined its core mission through mismanagement and misplaced priorities.”

smiller@nypost.com