They take it slow. What more do we really need to know about the private lives of snails?

The National Science Foundation awarded a grantfor $876,752 to the University of Iowa to study whether there is any benefit to sex among New Zealand mud snails and whether that explains why any organism has sex. The study, first funded in 2011 and continuing until 2015, will study the New Zealand snails to see if it is better that they reproduce sexually or asexually – the snail can do both – hoping to gain insight on why so many organisms practice sexual reproduction.

So they’re not even studying good ol’ American snails?

The funds from this study would have funded nearly three full months of White House tours, supposing those tours cost about $74,000 per week.