Special Initiatives
Doomsday Clock
The annual setting of the Doomsday Clock receives unprecedented international attention each January, driving the Bulletin’s impact on global conversations about man-made threats to our existence. The Clock announcements are livestreamed from the Bulletin’s website and a variety of media platforms to millions of viewers around the world. International media coverage is seismic, often generating more than 10,000 articles and television mentions within the first two weeks as well as op-eds and editorials in influential outlets like The New York Times, The Washington Post, and the Financial Times. Popular outlets such as People Magazine and TMZ also cover the Clock each year, and a wide variety of policy makers, actors, musicians, and artists will comment on the Doomsday Clock as a starting point for discussions about the security and environmental issues they care about most.
In 2020, the Doomsday Clock received a two-minute segment on “Jimmy Kimmel Live”; in 2019, singer/songwriter Hozier released “Wasteland, Baby,” and in interviews often explained how the title track was influenced by the Doomsday Clock, In the 2017 movie Justice League, Batman complained to Wonder Woman that “mankind acts like the Doomsday Clock has a snooze button.” The cultural reach and relevance of the Clock stops the news cycle each and every January and contributes to important conversations throughout the year and across cultures.
To learn more about investing in our global outreach and Clock announcement, contact our Chief Advancement Officer, Colleen McElligott, at [email protected] or call 773.834.2308.
Public Programming
The Bulletin has been developing new programming to include its expanding circle of experts. To deepen relationships and better connect our community to the future work of the Bulletin, we host invitational dinners, special events, and teleconferences. These gatherings feature experts from a variety of disciplines, in partnership with others who have expertise in relevant fields.
This programming provides access to concerned citizens around the world who remain committed to getting and staying active and engaged. In 2020, our programming will build on the success of events we have sponsored in previous years.
To learn more about investing in upcoming public programming and other events, contact our Chief Advancement Officer, Colleen McElligott, at [email protected] or call 773.834.2308.
Editorial Content Support
What Bulletin leaders knew 75 years ago, and what remains true today, is that in order to ensure a safe and secure future, an engaged, mobilized and educated citizenry must insist that leaders make wise choices. Your support will deliver original and timely analysis on the scientists and policymakers who are shaping our future and will greatly assist our efforts to help civilization find its way to a safe and stable planet.
There is no magazine, new-media platform or think tank that is as recognized as a go-to site for exploring the intersection of science/technology and global security than the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists. Over the past few years, we have rebuilt our online presence – through our website, social media, and external media partnerships with outlets like The New Yorker, the Medill School, and Climate Desk. Our staff is dedicated to promotion, outreach, and audience building, and placing the Bulletin on new media platforms such as Apple News and Smart News. We’ve catapulted the Bulletin into the leading resource that confronts man-made threats to our existence, but in the new media landscape, we must continue to evolve our platforms to successfully engage larger and younger audiences.
To learn more about investing in Editorial Content Support, contact our Chief Advancement Officer, Colleen McElligott, at [email protected] or call 773.834.2308.
Arts Science Initiative
The Bulletin’s Arts Science Initiative creates a twenty-first-century platform to attract artists and audiences from outside the scientific community who share its concern for the future of humanity and for how science and technological advancement can be better managed. In keeping with the Bulletin's history, the goal of the initiative is to capture the public’s imagination, ignite citizen engagement, and encourage creative evidence-based solutions to humanity’s greatest threats.
Amnesia Atomica by artist Pedro Reyes was unveiled in Mexico City in February 2020. Commissioned to raise public awareness and remind political leaders, policymakers, and global citizens of the “consequences of inaction," the three-story inflatable mushroom cloud is traveling to multiple cities in the coming year. Have a Nice Day II is a virtual reality collaboration and art installation by Ellen Sandor and (art)n, exhibited at the Augmented World Expo (AWE) in 2019 and previously at the Weinberg/Newton Gallery in Chicago. A collaboration with the Museum of Science and Industry Chicago resulted in the exhibit Turn Back the Clock, a hugely popular exhibit that ran from 2017 to 2019 and that will appear as a virtual tour on the Bulletin's website in spring 2020.
To learn more about investing in upcoming Arts Science Initiative events and projects, contact our Chief Advancement Officer, Colleen McElligott, at [email protected] or call 773.834.2308.