Did you know there's such a thing as a "couch potato" gene? 

Apparently the federal government is aware, because researchers at the University of Pennsylvania received nearly half a million dollars in federal economic stimulus money to study one.

That's not all.

How would you like to spend tens of thousands of dollars on "maritime security" for a ship that never leaves the Delaware River? 

Or spend roughly $150,000 for a study of the song of zebra finches?

After a year on the books, we wanted to see where exactly all the money from the $787 billion economic stimulus bill is being spent. So we pored through thousands of projects in Pennsylvania, New Jersey and Delaware.

While lots of projects have created jobs, Eyewitness News found millions of dollars in taxpayer money going to projects that created few or no jobs.

Take that study of the so-called "couch potato gene." Researchers at Penn received $467,861 for the study. No one from Penn would go on-camera to talk about it, but a spokesperson told Eyewitness News the gene just happens to have a "quirky" name and could have some life-prolonging benefits. It apparently doesn't have any job creating benefits, though, because no one was hired. Officials say two jobs were retained.