September issue: The hype, peril, and promise of AI

nuclear risk

This is a screenshot from a 1975 Bulletin magazine issue that focused heavily on the threats that humanity faced on the threshold of the last quarter of the Twentieth Century. From arms control discussions between the US and Soviet Union, to discussions on how to combat a mounting energy crisis, this issue features commentary from luminaries like historian Alice Kimball Smith and champion of free speech Samuel H. Day Jr.

An avid peace activist’s agenda from 1975

By Samuel H. Day Jr. | Nuclear Risk

This is a section of the cover of a 1984 Bulletin magazine cover that reads "This is a time when things must be done before their time." The issue focused on the Doomsday Clock moving forward from four minutes to three minutes to midnight.

Moving the Doomsday Clock forward in 1984: Three minutes to midnight

By A Bulletin editorial | Doomsday Clock

Robert J. Oppenheimer, who is often called "the father of the atomic bomb," was the first chairman of the Bulletin’s board of sponsors.

Reflections from 1967 on Oppenheimer’s legacy and impact on the Bulletin

By A Bulletin editorial | Nuclear Risk

This is a screenshot from a 1988 Bulletin magazine issue that came after a period of profound nuclear fears that were sparked by U.S.-Soviet friction in the late 1970s. Articles focused on how to educate the public about nuclear weapons and policy, nuclear fiction for children, and other aspects of nuclear education.

Weird science: Livermore’s x-ray laser flap

By Deborah Blum | Nuclear Risk

A section of the April 1969 issue of the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists' magazine. This issue was published at the height of the Vietnam war and commented on nuclear activism, the impacts of nuclear tests, agricultural development in Africa, and how science is actually a form of art.

A view from the height of the Vietnam War: Scientists and youth in revolt

By Eugene Rabinowitch | Analysis

This is a section of the cover of a December 1991 Bulletin magazine issue that marked the move of the Doomsday Clock from 10 minutes to midnight to 17 minutes to midnight. It shows an Earth with the Doomsday Clock hands overlaid on it, set at 17 minutes to midnight.

A new era: The farthest the Doomsday Clock ever moved backward

By A Bulletin editorial | Doomsday Clock

Members of the Atomic Energy Commission Patrol at Oak Ridge National Laboratory in 1947.

The first report of the Atomic Energy Commission

By The Atomic Energy Commission | Nuclear Risk

soldiers marching in Red Square, Moscow

Nuclear Notebook: Russian nuclear weapons, 2023

By Hans M. Kristensen, Matt Korda, Eliana Johns | Nuclear Notebook, Nuclear Risk, Nuclear Weapons

Nuclear Notebook: Chinese nuclear weapons, 2023

By Hans M. Kristensen, Matt Korda, Eliana Johns | Nuclear Notebook, Nuclear Risk, Nuclear Weapons

US nuclear submarine

Nuclear Notebook: United States nuclear weapons, 2023

By Hans M. Kristensen, Matt Korda | Nuclear Notebook, Nuclear Risk, Nuclear Weapons

The 2022 nuclear year in review: A global nuclear order in shambles

By François Diaz-Maurin | Nuclear Energy, Nuclear Risk, Nuclear Weapons

A launch of the Russian Iskander-M, which can carry a tactical nuclear warhead, at the Kapustin Yar proving ground in March 2018. Photo credit: the websites (mil.ru, минобороны.рф) of the Ministry of Defence of the Russian Federation. Licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0.

Rhetoric in Ukraine has reinforced the fallacy of limited nuclear exchange

By John Gower, Andrew Weber | Nuclear Risk, Nuclear Weapons