This post in Science Progress got me thinking: I’m a scientist and I’ll probably become a billionaire in terms of research funding at some point in my soon-to-be illustrious career—especially in the environmental field with its overinflated glut of research money. I need to have a plan for what I would do with all of my money if/when I become a PI. Let’s just say I’ll pull in a conservative estimate of $135 Billion (coincidentally, that’s how much money our current administration asked for in supplemental funds for our war in Iraq).

Maybe I’d scrap my own research program and blow it all to fund the U.S. Department of Energy’s Office of Science for the next 34 years. After all, scientists with hard hats were shown “cleaning up” nuclear waste on the cover of last week’s C&EN.

But seriously, look at those numbers. Due to the heavy bio-centric focus of NN lately, let me put this into terms you can understand: $135 billion dollars could fund ”335,593 additional average-sized NIH grants.”

How about it? How would you spend your $134 billion?