Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists, February 26, 2024
Posted: 26th February 2024
Trinity site obelisk. Image: Samat Jain, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons
SARAH KREPS
Responsible science: What Sam Altman can learn (and not learn) from Nobel and Oppenheimer
“Disruptive innovations are both dual-use and double-edged,” writes the director of the Tech Policy Institute at Cornell University. Today’s innovators can learn about being mindful scientific stewards by looking at yesterday’s innovators. Read more.
ASSAF ZORAN
How to avoid nuclear escalation as a confident Iran and insecure Israel square off
Iran’s growing confidence and Israel’s perceived threats create ground for a potential direct confrontation, in which the nuclear issue would be central. “It is time to change course, find alternatives to the ineffective current policies, and avoid a strategic mistake that will enable Iran to get closer to a nuclear weapon,” writes a research fellow from Harvard’s Belfer Center. Read more.
New report to offer a responsible path forward for research with pandemic risks
This Wednesday, February 28, at 10:00 a.m. EST the Bulletin will release the final report of its Independent Task Force on Research with Pathogen Risk at the United Nations headquarters in New York.
Watch the live stream of the event to hear UN and WHO officials and members of the task force’s leadership discuss the report’s findings.
SPECIAL TOPICS
Returning to a letter from St. Petersburg
This weekend marked two years since Russia invaded Ukraine. Last year, an anonymous Russian writer shared their experience living in a city where most “had little understanding of what their country’s armed forces were doing.” Read more.
QUOTE OF THE DAY
“In August 2020, Pope Francis condemned both the use and possession of nuclear weapons in a message to organizers of a ceremony commemorating the 75th anniversary of the Hiroshima atomic bomb detonation. ‘The use of atomic energy for purposes of war is immoral,’ the pontiff said, ‘just as the possessing of nuclear weapons is immoral.’ “
— Kimberley Heatherington, “It’s 90 seconds to midnight: Can Catholics stop the tick tock of the Doomsday Clock?” Detroit Catholic
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