A new law in Wyoming that bans citizens from science and free speech has caused a number of concerns. Critics of the law say that it is an attempt to cover up Wyoming's toxic waterways, a consequence of wide scale cattle ranching. Others suggest that the law is also intended to divert amateur scientists from raising alarm about the pending eruption of Yellowstone, which scientists have long warned would be catastrophic for much of the country. Slate.com reports:

The new law is of breathtaking scope. It 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. The statute defines the word collect as any method to "preserve information in any form," including taking a "photograph" so long as the person gathering that information intends to submit it to a federal or state agency. In other words, if you discover an environmental disaster in Wyoming, even one that poses an imminent threat to public health, you're obliged, according to this law, to keep it to yourself.