Special Topics

Visitors check out an infinity chamber at the "Futurium" in Berlin, a venue where significant national and international developments in scientific, technical and social research are to be presented and discussed among the government, the scientific community, industry, and society. (Photo credit: JOHN MACDOUGALL/AFP via Getty Images)

The recent past and foreseeable future of the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists: a conversation

By John Mecklin | Interviews, Magazine, Opinion, Personal Essay, Special Topics

solar panels in field

The brightest light at the end of the tunnel

By Bill McKibben | Climate Change, Magazine, Personal Essay, Special Topics

B/W image of iceberg, from the 1970s

1970: Polar Ice and the Global Climate Machine

By Joseph O. Fletcher | Climate Change, Magazine, Special Topics

lab worker putting on PPE gear

Use all the tools of the trade: Building a foundation for the next era of biosecurity

By Steph Batalis, Vikram Venkatram | Analysis, Biosecurity, Magazine, Special Topics

What happens when seeing is no longer believing?

By Jacob N. Shapiro, Vestal McIntyre | Artificial Intelligence, Magazine, Special Topics, Technology and Security

schematics of Fat Man bomb

Eighty years and 89 seconds: It’s time to fight against midnight

By Alexandra Bell | Magazine, Nuclear Risk, Opinion, Personal Essay, Special Topics

A National Security Strategy with no strategy for managing existential risks

By Alexandra Bell | Analysis, Climate Change, Disruptive Technologies, Nuclear Risk, Special Topics

Andriy Yermak, chief of staff to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, quit last month after anti-corruption agents searched his home as part of an investigation into corruption at the state-owned nuclear company Energoatom. (Source: President of Ukraine website)

Ukraine’s Energoatom, Holtec International, and the US retreat from fighting corruption abroad

By Matt Smith | Nuclear Energy, Special Topics

two scientists at microscope

Obama’s science adviser on Trump’s science cuts: “The system will starve”

By Matt Field | Special Topics

Trump as Humpty Dumpty

“Expertise is not only not valued by this administration, it’s inherently suspicious to them”—Nobel Prize-winning economist Paul Krugman

By Dan Drollette Jr | Special Topics

Introduction: How the Trump administration has upended international relations and increased existential risk

By Dan Drollette Jr | Special Topics

JFK and RFK in White House Cuban Missile Crisis

Lessons from former arms control negotiators

By Doreen Horschig | Special Topics