Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists, September 26, 2024
Posted: 26th September 2024
Bulletin editorial highlights
This week, the Bulletin is holding strategic planning meetings. While we reflect on the past and look forward to the future, we wanted to share some of our favorite articles. Stay tuned for more highlights in Monday’s newsletter.
JOHN MECKLIN
An extended interview with Christopher Nolan, director of Oppenheimer
For the Bulletin’s July 2023 Magazine, editor-in-chief John Mecklin went to Hollywood and interviewed Christopher Nolan about his then-upcoming film, Oppenheimer. Read more.
ERIK ENGLISH
An illustrated history of the world’s deadliest epidemics, from ancient Rome to Covid-19
Human history is riddled with grizzly stories of epidemics. Bulletin associate multimedia editor Erik English took a visual approach to the history of human epidemics in this illustrated timeline. Read more.
FRANÇOIS DIAZ-MAURIN
Nowhere to hide: How a nuclear war would kill you — and almost everyone else.
The Bulletin’s nuclear affairs editor, François Diaz-Maurin, wrote a guide on what to expect during, and after, a nuclear war. The results aren’t pretty. Read more.
SARA GOUDARZI
Popping the AI hype balloon
Bulletin disruptive technologies editor Sara Goudarzi wrote an article differentiating chatbots from AI as a whole, showing that a better understanding of how they work (and the human labor and data involved) can better help evaluate concerns about them. Read more.
Join us for Conversations Before Midnight with Featured Speaker David Ignatius
On November 12th, the Bulletin’s annual gathering will be held in Chicago.
Occurring one week after the US election, our keynote conversation will feature David Ignatius, award-winning Washington Post columnist whose new book Phantom Orbit focuses on growing conflicts in space.
FRANÇOIS DIAZ-MAURIN, JOHN MECKLIN
The experts comment: Key nuclear questions that the US presidential candidates should answer
The Bulletin asked nuclear policy experts to suggest questions that journalists and citizens should ask the 2024 presidential candidates. Read more of the submissions below, and stay tuned for further entries.
TOM Z. COLLINA
How many nuclear warheads does the United States need?
Tom Z. Collina, a national security expert and former director of policy at the Ploughshares Fund, proposes a single, central question about nuclear weapons that journalists and citizens should ask the 2024 presidential candidates. Read more.
ELIANA JOHNS
How will you deter North Korea’s aggression without deteriorating the situation on the Korean Peninsula?
Eliana Johns, senior research associate at the Federation of American Scientists and co-author of the Bulletin’s Nuclear Notebook, proposes four nuclear questions about the US arsenal, nuclear testing, use of nuclear weapons, and North Korea that journalists and citizens should ask the 2024 presidential candidates. Read more.
QUOTE OF THE DAY
“The US showed at Vogtle that we’re not very good at building [nuclear] plants…”
— Todd Allen, chair of nuclear engineering and radiological sciences at University of Michigan, “The AI Boom Is Raising Hopes of a Nuclear Comeback,” Wired
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