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The strange death of MIT Physics Professor Nuno Loureiro
Times of Israel ^ | 12/18/25 | Rafael Baptista

Posted on 12/18/2025 4:54:12 PM PST by SeekAndFind

His colleagues described him as a beacon of hope. Portuguese newspapers stumbled upon his story by chance. The scientific community was shaken to its core. The political establishment in Portugal set aside a minute for him — a single, paltry minute. Something doesn’t add up. Call me paranoid. Call me what you will. I’ve worked in security long enough to trust my instincts. They’re not always right, I admit, but I’ll take that chance.

Last night, over dinner, when I heard the news of the acclaimed scientist’s death — a fellow Portuguese — I voiced my suspicions to everyone at the table.

— But why? — they asked me.

I told them I didn’t know for sure; something just felt off.

What are the odds that a Portuguese scientist, Jewish and specializing in nuclear engineering, would be shot dead in his own home? And in a residential neighborhood, no less. It doesn’t strike me as random, much less a botched robbery. I think it was planned.

An awkward silence filled the room. I took the opportunity to drive my point home:

— Imagine having unlimited energy. Cheap, clean energy. What would that do to entrenched interests and powerful monopolies? Think of the hole it would blow in the fossil fuel industry. And national security? If I were a Putin or a Khamenei, I wouldn’t be happy about a technological leap coming from his research. Even Israeli authorities haven’t ruled out Iranian involvement. A breakthrough like this would leave such regimes permanently behind. It would redraw the balance of global power.

No one had the patience to hear me out, so the conversation died. But the thought stayed with me. The echo of gunshots seemed to whisper just behind my ear.

— No… this can’t be a coincidence. It has all the markings of an execution — I kept telling myself.

This morning, I woke up determined to learn more. And it seems I wasn’t the only one. By chance — or not — I opened the International Business Times to the headline Here’s Why the Internet Is Convinced Something Sinister Lies Behind the MIT Nuclear Scientist’s Death.

Now, I am not “the internet.” And I’m certainly not one of those knee-jerk conspiracy theorists. Still, I’m convinced there was foul play. Until last Tuesday, Nuno Loureiro was unknown. Now? Now he’s an itch I can’t scratch. He was my countryman, goddamn it!. I’ll say it again: the powerful are quietly celebrating his death. They, and only they, stood to gain from his fate. By all accounts, the world lost a visionary. The elites, meanwhile, bought themselves another day.


TOPICS: Crime/Corruption; News/Current Events
KEYWORDS: academia; assassination; banglist; loureiro; mit; murder; nuclearscientists; nunoloureiro; plasmaphysics; portugal; portuguese
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1 posted on 12/18/2025 4:54:12 PM PST by SeekAndFind
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To: SeekAndFind

Also see this article:

First Brown University Shooting, Then MIT Professor Murder, Police Investigate Possible Link

Source:

https://www.zerohedge.com/political/first-brown-university-shooting-now-strange-murder-mits-nuclear-scientist


2 posted on 12/18/2025 4:55:50 PM PST by SeekAndFind
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To: SeekAndFind

Maybe he was advising Israel and the US about Iran.


3 posted on 12/18/2025 4:58:12 PM PST by Jonty30 (Escasooners are faster than escalators,)
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To: Jonty30

See here

https://www.americanthinker.com/blog/2025/12/did_iran_put_a_hit_on_a_leading_mit_nuclear_physics_professor.html

Title: Did Iran put a hit on a leading MIT nuclear physics professor?


4 posted on 12/18/2025 5:02:06 PM PST by SeekAndFind
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To: Jonty30

Excerpt from Jerusalem Post:

https://www.jpost.com/middle-east/iran-news/article-880573

Israeli officials are examining intelligence from recent days that suggests an Iranian connection to the murder of Prof. Nuno Loureiro, a senior nuclear scientist at MIT, who was shot dead in his home in Brookline, Massachusetts, on Monday evening.

This is an assessment that has not yet been verified and is not supported at this stage by official findings from the investigative authorities in the United States.

Prof. Loureiro, who had previously spoken out in favor of Israel, was a 47-year-old Portuguese-born world-renowned plasma and nuclear fusion researcher.


5 posted on 12/18/2025 5:04:24 PM PST by SeekAndFind
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To: SeekAndFind

The motive you give is cliche to some and turns folks off.

Not saying you’re wrong. Just telling you why some might have tuned you out right away.


6 posted on 12/18/2025 5:09:54 PM PST by Red6
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To: SeekAndFind
My take....

Some early reports said that Ella Cook was shot 10 times in the head. Neighbors upstairs of M.I.T. professor stated the gunmen shot round after round.

Since for sure the Prof was a targeted victim...I wonder if there was a connection between the prof and student?

Seems like a crime of passion.

7 posted on 12/18/2025 5:20:23 PM PST by winoneforthegipper ("If you can't ride two hYeaorses at once, you probably shouldn't be in the circus" - SP)
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To: SeekAndFind

Targeted kill this was.


8 posted on 12/18/2025 5:29:04 PM PST by reasonisfaith (What are the personal implications if the Resurrection of Christ is a true event in history?)
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To: Red6

“The motive you give is cliche to some and turns folks off.”

Anyone who would respond in this way is not looking for the truth, they’re looking for entertainment.


9 posted on 12/18/2025 5:32:11 PM PST by reasonisfaith (What are the personal implications if the Resurrection of Christ is a true event in history?)
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To: SeekAndFind

He was a nuclear scientist, with open ties to Israel. My money is that the Iranians did it in revenge for the Israelis assassinating their nuclear scientists. Just like Mossad assassinated Gerald Bull for helping Saddam build the supergun around 1990 or so.

Just a hunch.


10 posted on 12/18/2025 5:37:52 PM PST by DesertRhino (When men on the chessboard, get up and tell you where to go…)
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To: SeekAndFind

I would supposed the professor had left his findings with others and so progress will go on. Could be the end of oil riches for the Arab states and the end of influence of Islam in the world if fusion energy comes to be commercialized.


11 posted on 12/18/2025 5:39:17 PM PST by Getready (Wisdom is more valuable than gold and harder to find.)
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To: SeekAndFind

“Imagine having unlimited energy. Cheap, clean energy. What would that do to entrenched interests and powerful monopolies? Think of the hole it would blow in the fossil fuel industry.”

Nope... nearly all oil is used for transportation where there is no realistic nuclear substitute. Gas is cheap, extant, plentiful and clean. The supply will last for hundreds of years. Nobody killed him because his work threatened so called “fossil fuels”.

But they would do it just to get even...and to spread fear.


12 posted on 12/18/2025 5:44:38 PM PST by DesertRhino (When men on the chessboard, get up and tell you where to go…)
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To: winoneforthegipper

My take....

Some early reports said that Ella Cook was shot 10 times in the head. Neighbors upstairs of M.I.T. professor stated the gunmen shot round after round.

Since for sure the Prof was a targeted victim...I wonder if there was a connection between the prof and student?

Seems like a crime of passion.
********
That’s what I wondered.


13 posted on 12/18/2025 5:53:30 PM PST by yldstrk
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To: DesertRhino
FIrst, he was a plasma physicist, not a "nuclear" physicist or nuclear engineer. Second, we are a long long long way away from a commercially operating nuclear fusion facility. First you have to get one to even work, and we are a long way from that. Then you have to simplify the design to something that can be built and maintained. Present designs make fission look really really good. The materials problem is unsolved because of neutron damage to the walls of the fusion machine and high power superconducting magnets that can withstand the damage from the high neutron flux. And then all those neutrons create a lot of radioactive material. It is not "nuclear waste" from fision, but it is still highly radioactive material that has to be dealt with. And then finally, I am waiting for someone to answer the question where you are going to get all the tritium from to make up for the tritium that is lost in the operating fuel cycle. The amount you actually burn is an issue but not the issue. There are a lot of very large losses to diffusion into wall material, loss into vaccuum pumps, etc. etc. And I know all about the breading options. Problem is for every fusion neutron you start with you are challenged to get more than about 1.8 tritium that you breed and there are all the tritium losses to make up for as well as neutron losses.

Fission is easy because it likes cylindrical geometry which makes heat transfer and control easy. Fusion wants toroids or spheres.

There is a long long time between now and when fusion is a source of energy much less a cheap reliable source of energy.

14 posted on 12/18/2025 5:57:58 PM PST by AndyJackson
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To: winoneforthegipper
connection between the prof and student?

Same hit man, two different contracts?

15 posted on 12/18/2025 6:05:37 PM PST by Mogger ( 7th generation Vermonter, refugee in New Hampshire hoping NH remains sane.)
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To: Mogger

Fox is now reporting that the suspect is dead; suicide; in the storage unit.


16 posted on 12/18/2025 6:07:08 PM PST by Jamestown1630 ("A Republic, if you can keep it.")
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To: AndyJackson

Even longer, now...


17 posted on 12/18/2025 6:07:14 PM PST by Does so (☞GOP should fund a new party. Call it the "Muslim Party", to track it.....Dem☭¢rat ∅ ™ ½¼)
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To: Does so

Hate to break the news, but this MIT professor was not on the critical path to developing fusion technology. Like I said, he is a theoretical plasma physicist. The problem is not the equations. Its the practical stuff of making things that work. Building experiments, fixing shit that’s broken, finding work arounds around surprise problems.... the usual stuff that has to be fixed to make things work.


18 posted on 12/18/2025 6:17:29 PM PST by AndyJackson
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To: AndyJackson

And fusion will never run a jet airplane or a car or tractor. The “fossil fuel” industry is in no danger.


19 posted on 12/18/2025 6:20:08 PM PST by DesertRhino (When men on the chessboard, get up and tell you where to go…)
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To: SeekAndFind

He may have been killed by our deep state.
He was working on cutting edge science that would change our paradigm, technology that certain people want to keep to themselves.


20 posted on 12/18/2025 6:21:13 PM PST by chud
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