Imprisoned Physicist Honored For Refusing To Work On Iran's Nuclear Program

New submitter I3MOUNTAINS writes "Omid Kokabee, a University of Texas graduate student who has been imprisoned in Iran for more than two years, received the American Physical Society's Andrei Sakharov human rights prize for refusing to collaborate on the country's nuclear program. In May, an Iranian court sentenced him to ten years in prison for 'communicating with a hostile government' and receiving 'illegal earnings.' The so-called 'illegal earnings' were the student loans he received while in Texas."

Guts

[spamchang]

This guy has 'em. There are other ways to sacrifice for worthy principles than warfare.

Hook 'em.

Iranian nuclear program

[Vintermann]

Wouldn't it be nice if the west had the entire moral high ground on this? Considering iranian physicists and physics professors are murdered by foreign agents over a low shoe, you can't blame Iran for being paranoid.

Re:Questions

[Anonymous Coward]

For plutonium nukes, the sphere of explosive around the plutonium must be perfectly shaped. What else must be perfectly shaped: mirrors and lenses for telescopes.

Re:Questions

[antifoidulus]

Because the Iranian government has done to the post-secondary education system in Iran what the Republicans have attempted to do(and in some cases succeeded) in doing to secondary education in the US, i.e. hand it over to the religious fundamentalists who only care about promoting whatever imaginary being they happen to believe in. The University of Tehran appointed as president a guy who had no post secondary education but lots and lots of Islamic bona fides. If they want an education that is more rigorous than "Muhammed is great!" they have to look elsewhere.

Re:Questions

[viperidaenz]

But you took a lot of money off them in the process.

That's all that matters, right?

Re:Questions

[Anonymous Coward]

Bin Laden's country is Saudi Arabia, which is a major US ally.