Let me tell you something I am an educated person and I don't believe the Media hype about Iran and nukes, during the Iran-Iraq war Iran was attacked with chemical weapons but the Ayatollah banned his army from retaliating in kind out of religious conviction, he has made a fatwa before he passed away that Iran can never develop nuclear weapons. So the real reason why they using the nuclear issue as a smoke screen is the fact that Iran is a fast growing country to becoming the superpower of the region, they are already the dominant power in that region. Like I said with Iran's growth rate they are due to become the China of the Middle East and Israel being the small country with limited population it has cannot match Iran's growth rate so the Israelis and the Americans want to nip Iran in the bud so it does not become the dominant power and the power broker of that region.
Iranian "Scientific output has grown 11 times faster in Iran than the world average" Science-Metrix, a data-analysis company in Montreal, Canada, has published a detailed report (PDF) on "geopolitical shifts in knowledge creation" since 1980. Archambaut notes that "Iran's publications have emphasised inorganic and nuclear chemistry, nuclear and particle physics and nuclear engineering. Publications in nuclear engineering grew 250 times faster than the world average – although medical and agricultural research also increased."
http://www.newscientist.com/article...fastest-scientific-growth-of-any-country.html
Iran's university population "swelled from 100,000 in 1979 to 2 million in 2006", which makes Iran's university population to be 1/3 of the whole population of the state of Israel. Furthermore, "Furthermore, Iran considers scientific backwardness, as one of the root causes of political and military bullying by developed countries over undeveloped states.[22] After the Iranian Revolution, there have been efforts by the religious scholars to assimilate Islam with modern science and this is seen by some as the reason behind the recent successes of Iran to augment its scientific out put."
"Iran's government has devoted huge amounts of funds for research on high technologies such as nanotechnology, biotechnology, stem cell research and information technology (2008).[27] Iranian Research Organization for Science and Technology and the National Research Institute for Science Policy are two of the main institutions, depending on the Ministry of Science, Research and Technology, in charge of establishing research policies at the state level. In 2006, Iranian government wiped out the financial debts of all universities in a bid to relieve their budget constraints."-Wiki
"Theoretical and computational sciences are highly developed in Iran. Theoretical physicists and chemists regularly publish works in high impact factor journals.[29] Despite the limitations in funds, facilities, and international collaborations, Iranian scientists have been very productive in several experimental fields such as pharmacology, pharmaceutical chemistry, and organic and polymer chemistry. Iranian biophysicists, especially molecular biophysicists, have gained international reputations since the 1990s[citation needed]. High field nuclear magnetic resonance facility, microcalorimetry, circular dichroism, and instruments for single protein channel studies have been provided in Iran during the past two decades. Tissue engineering and research on biomaterials have just started to emerge in biophysics departments. According to the State Registration Organization of Deeds and Properties, a total of 9,570 national inventions was registered in Iran during 2008. Compared with the previous year, there was a 38-percent increase in the number of inventions registered by the organization"- Wiki
"Clinical sciences are highly developed in Iran. In areas such as rheumatology, hematology, and bone marrow trasplantation, Iranian medical scientists are among the world leaders.[40] The Hematology, Oncology and Bone Marrow Transplantation Research Center (HORC) of Tehran University of Medical Sciences in Shariati Hospital was established in 1991. Internationally, this center is one of the largest bone marrow transplantation centers and has carried out a large number of successful transplantations.[41] According to a study conducted in 2005, associated specialized pediatric hematology and oncology (PHO) services exist in almost all major cities throughout the country, where 43 board-certified or eligible pediatric hematologist–oncologists are giving care to children suffering from cancer or hematological disorders."-Wiki
"Iran had some significant successes in nuclear technology during recent decades, especially in nuclear medicine. However, little connection exists between Iran's scientific society and that of the nuclear program of Iran. Iran is the 7th country in production of uranium hexafluoride (or "UF6").[53] Iran now controls the entire cycle for producing nuclear fuel.[54] Iranian scientists are also helping to construct the Compact Muon Solenoid, a detector for the Large Hadron Collider of the European Organization for Nuclear Research (CERN) that is due to come online in 2008[citation needed]. Iranian engineers are involved in the design and construction of the first regional particle accelerator of the Middle East in Jordan, called SESAME.[55] In 2009, Iran was developing its first domestic Linear particle accelerator (LINAC).[56] It is among the few countries in the world that has the technology to produce zirconium alloys.[57][58] Iran produces a wide range of lasers in demand within the country in medical and industrial fields"-Wiki
"Iran ranked 25th in the world in Nanotechnology in 2007 with highest, ranked paper citation international mean, amongst all Islamic countries and only second to S.Korea in Asia.[69] They are now 15th (2010) in the world ranking."
"On August 17, 2008, The Iranian Space Agency proceeded with the second test launch of a three stages Safir SLV from a site south of Semnan in the northern part of the Dasht-e-Kavir desert. The Safir (Ambassador) satellite carrier successfully launched the Omid satellite into orbit in February 2009.[73][74][75] Iran is the 9th country to put a domestically-built satellite into orbit since the Soviet Union launched the first in 1957.[76] Iran first astronaut will be sent into space onboard an Iranian shuttle by 2017.[77][78]"
here is the link for all the other quotes besides the first paragraph:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Science_and_technology_in_Iran