Jeff Flake report: Researcher lets bees sting his penis and other studies the senator believes are wasteful

• Report part of ongoing crusade by Flake against wasteful spending
• University professors take issue with report's conclusion
• None of the studies cited involved Arizona schools

A researcher in New York allowed honeybees to sting his penis to find out whether stings are more painful in certain parts of the body.

An engineering professor in California looked into why coffee spills when you walk around with a cup of joe.

And a professor in Canada pondered why people kept seeing the face of Jesus on pieces of food.

These university studies are among 20 examples singled out for questionable federal spending in a report issued this month by Sen. Jeff Flake, R-Ariz. The report is part of an ongoing crusade by the Republican senator against what he views as wasteful federal spending.

The senator's report highlights federally funded research that he contends is either frivolous or questionable when measured against other health priorities such as halting the spread of the Zika virus. None of the examples cited by Flake appear to have ties to Arizona universities.

Flake said he realizes that not every study "that sounds funny" is a waste of money, but a good number of them probably are.

"These agencies are always saying we need additional money," Flake told The Arizona Republic.

"In particular, NIH (National Institutes of Health) coming out and saying if we hadn't seen the (spending) cuts then we would have had a vaccine for Ebola," he added.

"I understand that we need to appropriate additional money sometimes when we have something like Ebola or Zika — I think that's justified. But at the same time, to be wasting money on some studies like this when we ought to prioritize better, just strikes me as something we ought to draw attention to."

University professors take issue with the report's conclusions. They say the projects singled out by Flake are part of larger research funded with federal grants that can lead to scientific breakthroughs with worthwhile benefits for humans and animals. They contend that, in some cases, federal funding wasn't even used.

But Flake counters that it's difficult for lawmakers to pinpoint a specific cost to the taxpayer for some of these studies.  He has introduced legislation that would require the institutions that receive taxpayer money to detail how it is spent.

"They certainly have that information, and that ought to be made available to the institution that provides the money and the oversight, Congress," he said. "We don't want to misconstrue what they're doing."

5 examples from Flake's report:

1. Honeybee stings on the penis

Michael L. Smith, a graduate student at Cornell University, wanted to find out whether honeybee stings were more painful on certain parts of the body.

He subjected himself to stings on 25 areas from head to toe. He paced the tests to five stings per day.

Smith writes that while "all stings induced pain in the author," the three most painful areas, in order, were the nostril, upper lip and penis.

The least-painful locations: the skull, tip of the toe and upper arm.

What Flake's report says: "This is the type of spending that puts a bee in the bonnet of taxpayers."

What the researcher says: Smith referred messages seeking comment to Cornell's media relations office, where officials declined comment. But his website shows he has plenty of other studies about honeybees, including a recent report on "How Honey Bee Colonies Survive in the Wild."

Smith's stinging study was honored in 2015 by the Ig Nobel Prizes, a parody of the Nobel Prizes that honors unusual or funny research that  "makes people laugh and then think."

2. Why coffee spills when you walk 

A mechanical-engineering professor and student at the University of California-Santa Barbara set out to explore the physics of spilled coffee.

They found most coffee spills happen in the range of seven to 10 steps. Coffee sloshes around in a mug when you walk. If you take uneven steps or make a small jerk, the sloshing can amplify, resulting in a spill. Staying focused as you walk makes it less likely you will end up with coffee on your shirt.

Flake's report says the research project was conducted for the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency, or DARPA.

What Flake's report says: "It's time for DARPA to wake up and smell the coffee and put a lid on unnecessary studies."

What the researcher said: Rouslan Krechetnikov, who co-authored the study, said not a single penny of federal funding went toward the research.

He said DARPA was acknowledged "only because it helped spawn the idea for the project." He added that some research is driven by pure curiosity and not motivated by anticipated practical applications.

Penicillin, for example, was accidentally discovered by Alexander Fleming when he analyzed mold on a piece of bread and found it killed bacteria.

The idea for the coffee study came up at a math conference in 2011, when Krechetnikov and his student observed how the conference participants tried not to spill their coffee during a coffee break. 

3. Why do we see Jesus on toast?

At least once a year, a story will appear about the face of Jesus appearing on an object, like a toasted-cheese sandwich.

Seeing images of Jesus on toast, or in the clouds, is perfectly normal, according to a professor at the University of Toronto who is funded by the National Institutes of Health.

Professor Kang Lee found our brains are wired to recognizes faces. So even if there is only a slight suggestion of the face on an object, the brain will interpret that as a face.

So the next time you think you see the image of the Virgin Mary carved into a tree, don't panic. It's perfectly normal. You aren't crazy.

What Flake's report says: "Regardless of such assurances, taxpayers are still likely to see little face value in this product."

What the researcher said: Lee studies facial recognition and how to re-mediate deficits in this ability from infants up to adults. The "Jesus on toast" study examined a much broader subject. It was part of a highly technical paper about how the front part of the brain plays a role in facial recognition.

Lee decided to use the Jesus-on-toast example as a way of communicating his findings to a larger audience.

4. What music do chimps like best?

Who knew chimps had a music preference?

Well, it turns out they do.

They like African and Indian music over silence, according to researchers at Emory University in Atlanta, who receive federal funding from the National Institutes of Health.

Researchers set up different "zones" of music in the chimps' enclosure and played tunes for 40 minutes every morning. The chimps spent the most time in the areas closest to the Indian and African music, suggesting a preference for those music types.

Other studies at the University of Wisconsin-Madison found chimps would rather hear silence than Western or Japanese music. Researcher Charles Snowdon, who received NIH funding, teamed up with a cellist to compose music for the monkeys and observe their reactions.

What Flake's report says: "Spending public money making music for monkeys and creating playlists for chimpanzees is not music to the ears of taxpayers."

What the researcher said: Snowdon said the study cited in Flake's report was an "incidental, add-on study" to a larger research project. The music study amounted to paying a student $7.50 an hour for about 100 hours of work.

"We're talking about a trivial amount of money," he said.

The larger goal of the monkey colony was to examine the fathers and brothers who cared for infants with the goal of understanding the factors that make males become involved as fathers.

Snowdon said the study of monkey-music preference has a practical application. Many labs play music as a way of providing enrichment for the animals.

"What we listen to as humans may not be good for the animals," he said. "We may not be doing a good thing by blindly playing music."

5. How long does it take animals to pee?

About 21 seconds, according to researchers at the Georgia Institute of Technology as part of a grant from the National Science Foundation.

The researchers filmed 16 animals urinating and observed another 28 similar videos of animals peeing on YouTube. They found that animals — whether large elephants or small cats —  took about the same amount of time to empty their bladders.

Their study, titled "Duration of urination does not change with body size," determined this was because a larger urethra in large animals created greater pressure, leading to high flow rates. This caused the bladders of large animals to empty at about the same time as the smaller animals.

What Flake's report says: "Most Americans probably think it's just another example of government sending tax dollars down the toilet."

Researcher's response: David Hu, a co-author of the study, said that research on urinary function and other such topics may be taboo, but they play an important role in human health.

'"We welcome all opinions on our research," said Hu, who is an associate professor of mechanical engineering and biology. "Strong feelings from a few people give us an opportunity to teach the public about the importance of physics."

The study shows that urination time can be a metric of bladder health, he said. Measuring health of the urinary system can help detect problems like prostate cancer without the use of X-rays or invasive techniques.

Reach the reporter at 602-444-8072 or anne.ryman@arizonarepublic.com