Wyoming just criminalized citizen science

– tl;dr: What is the new law?

The new law [...] makes it a crime to “collect resource data” from any “open land", meaning any land outside of a city or town, whether it’s federal, state, or privately owned.

– What is its purpose?

The state wants to conceal the fact that many of its streams are contaminated by E. coli bacteria, strains of which can cause serious health problems, even death.

– Where does the E. coli come from?

E. coli [...] comes from cows spending too much time in and next to streams. Acknowledging that fact could result in rules requiring ranchers who graze their cows on public lands to better manage their herds. The ranching community in Wyoming wields considerable political power and has no interest in such obligations, so the state is trying to stop the flow of information rather than forthrightly address the problem.

"citizen science".

Pierre Fermat was not a mathematician, he only did that as a hobby. In reality, he was a judge.