(Just a shrimp on an underwater treadmill, Reddit, 2012)

If you live in the real world, you might have missed this crunchy bit of “news”. But on the internet, this small video of a shrimp running on a treadmill sparked outrage in conservative circles. 

In early February this video resurfaced on twitter with a user being flabbergasted at how “THREE. MILLION. TAX. PAYER DOLLARS. WAS. USED. TO. STUDY. HOW. FAST. SHRIMP. CAN. RUN. ON. A. TREADMILL” (post liked 66k times).

This is only the latest in a transparent attack on science research and aid financed by the United state’s government. Barely a week prior, USAID was obliterated through executive orders, one of Trump’s main critique of this wasteful government spending was how “USAID was providing over 100m dollars in condoms to Gaza for Hamas” (that number went from a few million to over a 100 in a matter of days, but Trump will Trump, no surprise there). Of course all of that is bogus. That number is actually just 7,1m dollars, and most of it directed to the African continent to prevent the spread of sexually transmittable diseases. 

And what about our sportive crustacean? It turned out that the original study was in fact funded privately, for a ludicrous cost of 47 dollars. And the research? To determine the cognitive impact of changing water temperature and pollution levels on crustaceans, which in our fast warming and dying oceans, seems like an important study to conduct (unless you also deny the existence of manmade climate change).   

Actually, this shrimp controversy has had many cycles in the news for the past decade and a half, sporadically reappearing on Fox news to take a cheap shot at the US bureaucracy under Democrats.  

Now it is easy to have a quick laugh at Trump & Co’s inability to grasp even the most basic scientific facts, such as injecting ourselves bleach against covid, or my personal favorite “nuking a hurricane” (Yes he really suggested that), but Trump 2.0 is serious this time around. He already left the WHO, the COP, is cutting funding for state research and is inciting self-censorship in scientific publications to avoid the wrath of his Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) attack dogs. The scientific community is about to have a rough 4 years, let alone the environment … and the truth.  

Sources:

1. BBC News. (2019, August 26). ‘Shrimp on a treadmill’ scientist wins $500,000 grant. BBC News. https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-49471093
2. Dale, D. (2025, January 29). Fact check: $50 million for condoms in Gaza? Five big reasons to be skeptical Trump’s story is true. CNN. https://edition.cnn.com/2025/01/29/politics/gaza-condoms-fact-check/index.html
   
3. Goldfarb, B. (2015, February 3). Attacks on federal research funding anger scientists. High Country News. https://www.hcn.org/articles/attacks-on-federal-research-funding-anger-scientists/
   
4. Kleefeld, E. (2021, May 7). Fox News returns to the long-debunked treadmill shrimp story. Media Matters for America. https://www.mediamatters.org/fox-news/fox-news-returns-long-debunked-treadmill-shrimp-story
   
5. Scholnick, D. (2014, November 13). How a $47 shrimp treadmill became a $3-million political plaything. The Chronicle of Higher Education. https://www.chronicle.com/blogs/conversation/how-a-47-shrimp-treadmill-became-a-3-million-political-plaything
   
6. The Oregonian/OregonLive. (2014, November 13). Shrimp on a treadmill: Worthwhile research or wasteful spending?. The Oregonian. https://www.oregonlive.com/education/2014/11/shrimp_on_a_treadmill_worthwhi.html
   
7. X post: https://x.com/StoneJAlex/highlights