DIGITAL MAGAZINE

November 2023

DIGITAL MAGAZINE

November 2023

Photo of 2008 Gap fire by David McNew/Getty Images
Cover design by Thomas Gaulkin

leaves turning color

Introduction: Climate change—Where are we now?

Things seem to have gone to extremes. But not all is doom and gloom.
leaves turning color

Introduction: Climate change—Where are we now?

Things seem to have gone to extremes. But not all is doom and gloom.
dead trees in desert

“Like writing the biography of a ghost”—Interview with Jeff Goodell, author of The Heat Will Kill You First

Extreme heat is an invisible threat that is easily overlooked. But what it does to living things is very real.
Anasazi cliff ruins

Book excerpt—Catastrophic climate change: Lessons from the dinosaurs

Do the dinosaurs, victims of a famous 66-million-year-old mass extinction event, have a message for us?
Emily Atkin

Where climate journalism is now: Interview with Emily Atkin, the fire behind the Heated climate newsletter

Emily Atkin quit her full-time job and formed her own newsletter. She details the problems with current climate coverage, and gives her own prescription for making it better.
artist's rendition of guts of electric vehicles and hybrids

Charging ahead: Steven Chu, Nobel Prize-winner and former Energy Secretary, on today’s battery research—and more

Chu talks about why the solid-state battery is the holy grail of researchers, the roles of rare earths, the quirks of auto industry economics—and why the full charge of a car battery only needs to be long enough to go about 200 miles: “You don’t really need anything more than that; the goal is simply to make the battery last longer than the human bladder.”
power storage and wind farm, Australia

Laying the groundwork for long-duration energy storage

Technologies that can hold large amounts of electricity and distribute it over hours, days, and even seasons will play a critical role in the clean energy transition. But creating an environment where these nascent technologies can develop and thrive will require changes in how the grid is planned and built.
young bear up tree in re-sprouting forest

Redefining the wildfire problem and scaling solutions to meet the challenge

By redefining the wildfire problem as a home ignition problem, communities can survive even extreme fires and can safely reintroduce fire to the land.

Climate anxiety is not a mental health problem. But we should still treat it as one.

"Climate anxiety" refers to pervasive worry and apprehension about climate change—which is a normal and healthy response to climate change, and one that can motivate climate action. It should, therefore, not be treated with pills or otherwise medicalized. But that doesn't mean it should be ignored.

Conditional restraint: Why the India-Pakistan Kargil War is not a case of nuclear deterrence

In the 1999 Kargil War, India defended its territory from a Pakistani incursion but chose not to expand the war with counter-attacks onto Pakistan soil. But in a future conflict India may be encouraged to take especially risky and escalatory wartime actions, posing a test for nuclear deterrence.

Nuclear weapons sharing, 2023

This Nuclear Notebook issue examines the current state of global nuclear sharing arrangements, which include non-nuclear countries that possess nuclear-capable delivery systems for employment of a nuclear-armed state's nuclear weapons.
dead trees in desert

“Like writing the biography of a ghost”—Interview with Jeff Goodell, author of The Heat Will Kill You First

Extreme heat is an invisible threat that is easily overlooked. But what it does to living things is very real.
Anasazi cliff ruins

Book excerpt—Catastrophic climate change: Lessons from the dinosaurs

Do the dinosaurs, victims of a famous 66-million-year-old mass extinction event, have a message for us?
Emily Atkin

Where climate journalism is now: Interview with Emily Atkin, the fire behind the Heated climate newsletter

Emily Atkin quit her full-time job and formed her own newsletter. She details the problems with current climate coverage, and gives her own prescription for making it better.
artist's rendition of guts of electric vehicles and hybrids

Charging ahead: Steven Chu, Nobel Prize-winner and former Energy Secretary, on today’s battery research—and more

Chu talks about why the solid-state battery is the holy grail of researchers, the roles of rare earths, the quirks of auto industry economics—and why the full charge of a car battery only needs to be long enough to go about 200 miles: “You don’t really need anything more than that; the goal is simply to make the battery last longer than the human bladder.”
power storage and wind farm, Australia

Laying the groundwork for long-duration energy storage

Technologies that can hold large amounts of electricity and distribute it over hours, days, and even seasons will play a critical role in the clean energy transition. But creating an environment where these nascent technologies can develop and thrive will require changes in how the grid is planned and built.
young bear up tree in re-sprouting forest

Redefining the wildfire problem and scaling solutions to meet the challenge

By redefining the wildfire problem as a home ignition problem, communities can survive even extreme fires and can safely reintroduce fire to the land.

Climate anxiety is not a mental health problem. But we should still treat it as one.

"Climate anxiety" refers to pervasive worry and apprehension about climate change—which is a normal and healthy response to climate change, and one that can motivate climate action. It should, therefore, not be treated with pills or otherwise medicalized. But that doesn't mean it should be ignored.

Conditional restraint: Why the India-Pakistan Kargil War is not a case of nuclear deterrence

In the 1999 Kargil War, India defended its territory from a Pakistani incursion but chose not to expand the war with counter-attacks onto Pakistan soil. But in a future conflict India may be encouraged to take especially risky and escalatory wartime actions, posing a test for nuclear deterrence.

Nuclear weapons sharing, 2023

This Nuclear Notebook issue examines the current state of global nuclear sharing arrangements, which include non-nuclear countries that possess nuclear-capable delivery systems for employment of a nuclear-armed state's nuclear weapons.

Photo of 2008 Gap fire by David McNew/Getty Images
Cover design by Thomas Gaulkin

Subscribe now

We've relaunched the Bulletin's award-winning digital magazine. Get premium access for less than $5 a month.

Magazine archive

cover image for July 2022 magazine issue on blockchain and cryptocurrency with image of giant bitcoin melting on to the planet Earth
Albert Einstein in Washington, D.C., between 1921 and 1923. Harris & Ewing, photographers. Courtesy of the Library of Congress. https://www.loc.gov/pictures/item/2016885961/

Premium subscribers can read the complete Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists’ archive, which contains every article published since our founding in 1945.

This archive was created in honor of John A. Simpson, one of the Bulletin’s principal founders and a longtime member of its Board of Sponsors. This searchable archive provides exclusive online access to original interviews and commentary by luminaries like Albert Einstein, J. Robert Oppenheimer, Ruth Adams, John F. Kennedy, Stephen Hawking, Christine Todd Whitman, US Secretary of Defense William J. Perry, and multiple Nobel laureates.