Innovation in Funding Research
The research team at UCLA has taken an unconventional approach to fund their long-standing wildlife study on yellow-bellied marmots by creating an OnlyFans account, dubbed OnlyMarms. This initiative comes as traditional research funding opportunities decline.
Launched under the direction of Professor Daniel Blumstein, OnlyMarms aims to raise funds to support their ongoing research, which has documented marmot behavior in Colorado since 1962. The account, humorously named by a graduate student, offers subscribers access to "uncensored marmot content," which Blumstein believes helps reach a broader audience than typical scientific communication methods. So far, the initiative has successfully raised around $4,000, but the researchers need between $75,000 and $100,000 annually to maintain their project and graduate student involvement.
Unexpected Cryptocurrency Connections
Interestingly, the OnlyMarms initiative has also attracted attention within the cryptocurrency community. Several meme coins inspired by this project have appeared on the Solana blockchain, although Blumstein clarified that the UCLA team is not involved in their creation. He noted that independent creators have developed these tokens, which seem to have gained traction among users on Pump.fun. Blumstein stated, “It’s a meme coin for a good cause that resonates with people.”
