Don't you just love it when hard earned tax dollars go into seemingly unremarkable scientific research. So what's the big deal! Where's the pay off! I just paid you big money to study.....what> Scientist really should brush up on there salesman ship... at least NASA always goes for the "it will help further the understanding on out universe" ploy.

Here they could say...."This finding will help in forecasting earthquakes and tsunamis".

Scientist need to understand that in order get the public excited about funding science they need to sell it!