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1890s photo of Nikola Tesla in lab

Introduction: Why some renewable technologies will perish—and others succeed

The Inflation Reduction Act contains $370 billion to cut carbon emissions. What new, climate change-fighting technologies will come of all this money? And what will determine which of those renewable technologies will succeed and which will fail?

The US government’s comic approach to information warfare

Graphic novels are now a billion dollar industry in the United States. There’s certainly an audience for new visual books, including non-fiction. But is there one for government public service messages? 
A barefoot boy waiting in line and staring ahead at a crematorium in Nagasaki, with his dead baby brother strapped to his back. Photo by US Marine photographer Joe O’Donnell

Memorial Days: the racial underpinnings of the Hiroshima and Nagasaki bombings

This past Memorial Day, a Minneapolis police officer knelt on the throat of an African-American, George Floyd, for 8 minutes and 46 seconds. Seventy-five years ago, an American pilot dropped an atomic bomb on the civilian population of Hiroshima. Worlds apart in time, space, and scale, the two events share three key features. Each was an act of state violence. Each was an act carried out against a defenseless opponent. Each was an act of naked racism. 
Gadget is readied for the Trinity test.

A foul and awesome display

My personal nightmare was knowing that if the bomb didn't go off or hangfired, I, as head of the test, would have to go to the tower first and seek to find out what had gone wrong.

Paying for the great urbanization of China

To create the livable, sustainable cities needed to serve its burgeoning population and fight climate change, China will have to reform its system of municipal finance.
Oppenheimer security badge photo at Los Alamos

“He did not speak the ordinary language”: Memories of Oppie, from a Manhattan Project physicist

One of the last surviving eyewitnesses from the effort to build the first atomic bomb gives his impressions of the Manhattan Project’s driving force: J. Robert Oppenheimer.

Oppenheimer’s second coming

Japanese were clearly interested when Oppenheimer visited Japan as an honored guest in 1960. Will they be also interested in eponymous Christopher Nolan film released today in Japan?

No-first use would only embolden China

When President Barak Obama's second term ends in four months, how will he be remembered? As the first African-American president, certainly. But his legacy will also include consequential achievements such as overseeing an economic recovery and expanding access to health care. He'll be remembered for his efforts to slow climate change and, in foreign policy, … Continued

Navy’s new laser weapon: Hype or reality?

Despite some stunning video, things may not be what they seem

Why nuclear realism is unrealistic

And what the world can learn from an act of military disobedience. 
The Lucky Dragon No. 5 in the Daigo Fukuryu Maru Exhibition Hall in Tokyo.

How the unlucky Lucky Dragon birthed an era of nuclear fear

A small Tokyo museum sheds light on global attitudes to radiation that began in the 1950s and persist to this day.
missile spiraling out of control during test

Interview with Eric Schlosser: Why we can’t trust the government’s figures about nuclear close calls

The Pentagon’s list of accidents with US nuclear weapons, or "Broken Arrows," includes inaccuracies and is missing key events. Due to the looseness with which a Broken Arrow is defined, there may be hundreds more accidents.
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ISIS: The unsurprising surprise that is sweeping Iraq

The success of the Islamic State of Iraq and al-Sham is no shock to those who have monitored the capable, well-financed group as it seeks an Islamic caliphate
Herbert Sussan in a newly-reopened school room during filming in Nagasaki in 1946. (Credit: US Army)

From Hollywood to Hiroshima: Retracing my father’s cinematic journey

In this essay, the author retraces her father's journey as a US Army photographer in both Hiroshima and Nagasaki, where he filmed survivors of the atomic bombings. The film was suppressed for decades but has been made public, and the author was able to listen to the survivors reflect on how the bomb, and the filming, changed their lives.
A loitering munition.

Russia may have used a killer robot in Ukraine. Now what?

If open-source analysts are right, a loitering munition capable of using AI to pick a target--a killer robot--was used in the Russia-Ukraine conflict. Autonomous weapons using artificial intelligence are here. And what’s more, the technology is proliferating fast.
Brain with electrical currents

Q&A: How DARPA hacked a science writer’s brain and turned her into a sharpshooter

A science writer tried brain surface electrical stimulation at a DARPA facility and went from a frustrated shooter to an expert sniper.

The CTBT debate begins again

North Korea's nuclear test on May 25 has increased the urgency of the nuclear test ban cause but also raised further questions about the feasibility of achieving a truly universal ban. President Barack Obama has promised to seek "aggressive" and "immediate" ratification of the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty (CTBT). Signed by Washington in 1996, the CTBT was brought before the Senate for ratification once before in 1999.
satellite view Aegean Sea

Sun glint—bane of climate modellers who use satellite images—may have silver lining

This beautiful, satiny optical phenomenon can wreck satellite imaging. But it can also reveal hidden aspects of our planet.
Australian firefighter inspecting rare tree saved from fire

A rare species of tree was saved from Australia’s wildfires. And something else happened

A coalition of firefighters and others saved some of the world’s most endangered trees from being consumed by wildfire in Australia—or “Oz,” as locals call their country. What could we learn from this?
Time exposure showing the tracks of the missiles’ six dummy warheads, white-hot from air friction, arriving 8,000 km down-range near Kwajalein Atoll in the Western Pacific. The domes in the foreground house tracking telescopes. As a part of the post-Cold War reductions, the Minuteman IIIs were downgraded to one warhead each. Credit: US Air Force photos from National Security Archive and US National Archive collections respectively. Public domain image.

Biden should end the launch-on-warning option

President Biden should end the launch-on-warning option and the danger it entails of an unintended nuclear Armageddon. He could order Strategic Command to plan the US nuclear posture on the assumption that he will not launch on warning. US nuclear planners would have to assume a delayed response and revise their contingency plans accordingly.