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Registered: November 05, 2004
Posts: 6054
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From CNN: quote: Tehran, IRAN (CNN) -- It is a country where the call to prayer echoes throughout the capital every morning, where women must cover their heads at all times, where a Supreme Leader has the final say over everything.
But when it comes to stem cell research, Iran is cutting edge. Iran has some of the most liberal laws on stem cell research. Scientists say the clergy here define life as beginning three months after conception, which gives scientists access to human embryonic stem cells left over from fertilization trials.
Scientists here are testing treatments on mice for everything from heart disease to multiple sclerosis. And they claim to have successfully cloned a sheep last month and that the sheep is still alive. Foreign observers have been invited to verify the claim.
We traveled both to a government run laboratory and a private hospital in Tehran. Men and women were laboring over microscopes and Petri dishes. And all told us things that most scientists in the West would envy. "It's quite open, we can do our work very easily, we don't have any restriction, any problem," one of the country's leading stem cell researchers told me.
Iranian history, going back to the Persian empire, is laced with scientific achievements and one doctor told me, "the scientists would now like to go back to this era and for this reason young scientists are really excited."
The new-found pride is not just about stem cells. It's also about nuclear energy. The fact that Iranian scientists figured out how to enrich uranium without having to do so in a foreign country is a big reason the people and politicians say they won't back down from the United Nations' demands to stop.
It seems science of all kinds is pushing ahead in Iran without pause.
It surprised me, to say the least. You don't exactly connect fundamental Islam with cutting edge stem cell research, but apparently it's true. It definitely puts the United States in an interesting light, doesn't it?
The more you know, the less you don't know.
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Registered: April 24, 2005
Posts: 872
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of course Iran could build a weapon, they could develop it themselves with ease im sure, whether they are is another matter, people jump too quickly to the conclusion that they are with no hard proof, label them guilty at your peril, everyone knows what happened last time the US falsly accused somebody of developing WMDs.
'it's better to have your ministers inside the tent pissing out than outside, pissing in'
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Registered: February 22, 2004
Posts: 13981
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quote: if at the moment they lack the know-how to build nuclear weapons
they don't CIA and British SIS (aka MI6) have good reason (as in we're pretty damn sure and have some evidence but not enough to call down hellfire on them) to belive that that the pakistanis sold nuclear secrets to both NK and Iran. Between that and Russia selling anything that's not nailed down... well you can draw your own conclusions Making a nuke is simple enough once you have the materials. For an implosion type nuclear weapon (like the Fat Man bomb) all you need is a weapons grade core of plutonium and to surround it with directed high explosives. For the more common "pistol type" as I think of it (like little boy) things get more complex. You need to create a type of gun (hence the nickname) that will shoot a uranium bullet at a large uranium mass. When this bomb type is detonated the "bullet" acclerates at the "mass" and splits an atom starting off a nuclear chain reaction. It's a little more complicated than that but it's more simple than most people think it to be. (just a note: I got all that information out of books at the public library so it's not hard to find the basic concept information)
"The very existence of flamethrowers proves that sometime, somewhere, someone said to themselves, "You know, I want to set those people over there on fire, but I'm just not close enough to get the job done"."
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Registered: February 27, 2003
Posts: 2217
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Wow, that's sad... and rather shocking. I never would've guessed that. Oh and speed, if at the moment they lack the know-how to build nuclear weapons it's just 'cause they haven't asked the right people yet. That or the fax got mis-sent. Also, I highly doubt that Iran is not planning and trying to build nuclear weapons. I mean really, look at the agenda their leader has set. Nuclear power would make eradicating Israel a lot easier.
"I know of no safe repository of the ultimate power of society but the people. And if we think them not enlightened enough, the remedy is not to take power from them, but to inform them by education." Thomas Jefferson
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Registered: February 22, 2004
Posts: 13981
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quote: they also lack the technical knowledge to build weapons.
wrong ever hear of north korea and pakistan? they'll sell that information. Shit alot of the stuff (on the tech side) can be found in a bloody public library. Nuclear weapons are not as complex as most people think (well, first stage any way once you get large amounts of damage and thermonuclear/hydrogen bombs it gets more complex)
"The very existence of flamethrowers proves that sometime, somewhere, someone said to themselves, "You know, I want to set those people over there on fire, but I'm just not close enough to get the job done"."
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Registered: February 05, 2005
Posts: 929
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Very interesting indeed. quote: It definitely puts the United States in an interesting light, doesn't it?
It certainly is surprising to find that a fundamentalist country is more cientifically advanced than the US in some aspects. Regardless of what Ahmadineyad has said I don't believe Iran intends to make nuclear weapons, I think his call to obliterate Israel is more a product of his hardline image than an actual objective of his administration. It is also proven that Iran would require a total of 60.000 centrifugues to produce enough enriched Uranium to make a weapon. It goes without saying that Iran has no where near 60.000 centrifugues(their current plans are to build 3.000 in one year), and they also lack the technical knowledge to build weapons.
If god existed he'd be right winged
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