September 19, 2005

Top: Hessamaddin Arfaei

An Islamic Science Revolution?
Iran is pouring money into world-class facilities for biotechnology, particle physics, and astronomy. But growing
tensions with the West threaten a scientific community just coming into its own

Science Magazine
TEHRAN, September 16, 2005 -- In a quiet suburb that seems lightyears from the hubbub of downtown Tehran, Amir Mousavi beams with pride at a state-ofthe-art gene gun for injecting DNA into cells. “It’s a dream of many universities in Iran to have one,” says Mousavi, a molecular biologist with the National Research Center for Genetic Engineering and Biotechnology (NRCGEB). The lab has become a magnet for young talent, filling up with researchers who in other times might have left Iran to make their mark in science. The rising campus is a prime example of Iran’s recent push to create oases of elite science. Other brick-and-mortar initiatives include the country’s first world-class astronomical observatory, a linear accelerator, and a facility for international conferences. The sails of Iranian science have been filling with government support of several kinds -- including a rapid expansion of foreign cooperation that embraces even “the Great Satan,” as the United States is still known in some circles here >>> Read

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