'Chilling Effect': Can Science Get Taboo?

Grifo said her group has noticed the influence of politics can dissuade scientists from studying anything, including wildlife, when economics or ideologies are at stake.

"Obviously, these things have always happened, but not at the rate or at the frequency of the last eight years," said Grifo.

"President-elect Obama has been very clear in a number of statements where these abuses of science must stop," she said.

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Andrea Lafferty, executive director of Traditional Values Coalition (TVC) in Washington, D.C., sees no "abuses of science" but agrees that with the new administration, the content of grant proposals is likely to expand.

"My main idea is the NIH ATM machine is going to re-open in 09," said Lafferty. "It's some guys in their jammies at universities drinking beer asking, 'hey, how can we study how prostitutes spread disease?' Then they take it to the NIH."

Lafferty asserted that the list leaked by the staffer contained both "inappropriate" content, as well as examples of wasted funding for science.

"NIH has always been treated like a sacred cow ... scientists overall don't believe in God, and they don't want to be questioned," she said. "These people want to say it's just TVC but you take what we find is being studied, go to any grocery store and ask people what they think. Taxpayers would be outraged."

But according to Kington, the NIH's mission is to independently review each proposed study with scientists in the same field -- not politicians -- and to give funds to the best research, regardless of location or affiliation.

"That's one of the reasons why we have a world-renown funding for science, that's why we have accomplished what we have in this country," said Kington. "There's a reason why cardiovascular death risk is dropping and there's a reason why HIV isn't an automatic death sentence now."