Scientists Admit Why They Steal

Mossad funding, training People’s Mujahedin of Iran, sources confirm

(NEWSER) - As Iran has long claimed, Israel is indeed behind the assassinations of Iranian nuclear scientists, providing financing, training, and weapons to the Iranian terrorist group that carries out the attacks, US officials confirm to NBC News . Five Iranian nuclear scientists have been killed since 2007, reportedly by the People’s Mujahedin of Iran (MEK). That group of dissidents—which was accused of killing American servicemen in the 1970s—is backed by the Mossad, Israel's secret service. "This is an Israeli plot. A dirty plot," says a senior aide to Iran's supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, who adds that most of the Iranian government's information came from the interrogation of an MEK member whose attempted attack failed in 2010. More»

Relativity, theory of evolution top the list

(NEWSER) - Every year, the website Edge poses a big, open-ended question to leading scientists. This year's query— "What is your favorite deep, elegant or beautiful explanation?" —received 191 answers covering a wide range of ideas, with Albert Einstein's Theory of Relativity and Charles Darwin's Theory of Evolution receiving the most replies, reports Reuters . Some interesting responses:

• "Darwin's natural selection wins hands down," writes Richard Dawkins, unsurprisingly. "Never in the field of human comprehension were so many facts explained by assuming so few."

Tehran says it has 'evidence' of US assistance

(AP) - Iran said today it has proof that the United States was behind the assassination of an Iranian nuclear scientist this week in Tehran. The IRNA state news agency said Iran's Foreign Ministry has sent a diplomatic letter to the US asserting that it has "evidence and reliable information" that the CIA provided "guidance, support and planning" to assassins "directly involved" in the killing of Mostafa Ahmadi Roshan. More»

Reports says plan could involve foreign assassinations

(NEWSER) - Chanting "death to America" and "death to Israel," thousands gathered in Iran today to mourn slain nuclear scientist Mostafa Ahmadi Roshan , hauling his coffin through Tehran. Meanwhile, an independent news site suggested Iran is preparing a covert counteroffensive against the West in retaliation for the bomb blast. It quoted a security official as saying the plan could involve foreign assassinations: "Iran's response will be extra-territorial and extra-regional ... none of those who ordered or carried out (the attacks) should feel secure in any part of the world." More»

He has survived half-a-century with Lou Gehrig's disease

(AP) - British scientist Stephen Hawking has decoded some of the most puzzling mysteries of the universe, but he has left one mystery unsolved: How he has managed to survive so long with such a crippling disease. The physicist was diagnosed with Lou Gehrig's disease when he was a 21-year-old at Cambridge. Most people die within a few years: Hawking will turn 70 on Sunday. More»