Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists, July 27, 2023
Posted: 28th July 2023
CLIMATE CHANGEEverything, everywhere, all at once: The great floods of 2023
Water expert Peter Gleick on the calamitous flooding and other extreme weather events occurring on daily basis around the globe. Read more.
NUCLEAR RISK
Watching Ukraine, South Korea and Japan eye nuclear weapons. Here’s what the US should do.
Officials in South Korea and Japan increasingly believe nuclear weapons will help them avoid being the next Ukraine. But they don’t need them, an expert on Northeast Asia explains. Read more.
Since the days of the Revolutionary War, the US military has been inoculating troops against diseases ranging from smallpox to COVID-19. The Pentagon’s programs can be met with widespread resistance or go smoothly. They offer lessons for future campaigns, both for the military and the general public. Read more.
SPECIAL TOPICS
The explosive musical score to Oppenheimer
A music historian who has studied how composers depict nuclear testing and anxiety in film and television analyzes the score and sound design of “Oppenheimer.” Read more.
Wear the 1984 Bulletin cover: ‘This is a time when things must be done before their time’
This week’s summer archive dive magazine cover focuses on the Doomsday Clock moving forward because of the accelerating nuclear arms race between the US and Russia as well as the almost complete breakdown of communication between world superpowers.
NUCLEAR RISK
Post-‘Oppenheimer,’ what we should do to dismantle the nuclear Doomsday Machine
Fighting a nuclear war is equivalent to national suicide, says president of the Nuclear Age Peace Foundation Ivana Nikolić Hughes. As such, the “Doomsday Machine” that has mainly been built by the US and Russia must be dismantled. Read more.
NUCLEAR RISK
A new nuclear-armed, sea-launched cruise missile: Just say no
The new sea-launched cruise missile will deteriorate US national security in both the short and the long term, writes Princeton University professor Robert J. Goldston. Read more.
NUCLEAR RISK
Moving the Doomsday Clock forward in 1984: Three minutes to midnight
This is a 1984 statement written by the Bulletin’s editorial board that details why the Doomsday Clock moved forward from four minutes to three minutes, noting that “The odds may be long: But it is our deepest conviction, as scientists and citizens, that there is no other way.” Read more.
QUOTE OF THE DAY
“It isn’t the Cold War, but it’s a Cold War-like environment [...] I did not expect a renewed arms competition when I left Los Alamos.”
— Siegfried Hecker, “In the Lab Oppenheimer Built, the U.S. Is Building Nuclear Bomb Cores Again” by W.J. Hennigan, TIME
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