The Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists is a journal and nonprofit organization focusing on risks of human extinction, especially from nuclear warfare, climate change, and transformative technology. It was founded in 1945 by former scientists and engineers of the Manhattan Project, and was the first academic journal ever devoted to promoting nuclear disarmament and preventing human extinction.

History

Two events were key precursors to the formation of the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists. First, the writing of the Franck Report in June 1945, which argued against the use of nuclear weapons against civilian populations in Japan and instead recommended that the bomb be demonstrated in an uninhabited area. The Report was authored primarily by Eugene Rabinowitch, who would become one of the Bulletin’s co-founders. Second, the creation of Atomic Scientists of Chicago (ASC), an organization open to any past or present scientific employee of the Manhattan Project with the mission “to address the moral and social responsibilities of scientists regarding the use of nuclear energy and to promote public awareness of its possible consequences.”^[1] ASC became the Bulletin’s founding organization.

Doomsday Clock

Since 1947, the Bulletin has maintained a “Doomsday Clock”, intended to provide a vivid depiction of how close humanity is to “destroying the world”. (The Bulletin does not appear to define the meaning of that expression precisely.) Every year, the clock is set to a certain number of minutes and seconds to “midnight”, with times closer to midnight representing higher risks of catastrophe. The Doomsday Clock measures risk on a merely ordinal scale: it does not purport to claim that, for example, 23:58 is associated with half the risk of 23:59, or that the difference between 23:57 and 23:56 is of the same magnitude as the difference between 23:55 and 23:54, as would be the case if the risk was measured on ratio or interval scales, respectively.

The Doomsday Clock was last updated on 24 January 2023. It was set to 90 seconds to midnight.^[2]

Nuclear Notebook

Since 1987, the Bulletin also publishes the Nuclear Notebook, an accounting of world nuclear arsenals compiled by the Federation of American Scientists (FAS). The Nuclear Notebook is currently prepared by Hans Kristensen and Matt Korda, researchers from the Nuclear Information Project at FAS.^[3]

Further reading

Elder, Robert K. & J. C. Gabel (2022) The Doomsday Clock at 75, Los Angeles: Hat & Beard Press.

Smith, Alice Kimball (1965) A Peril and a Hope: The Scientists’ Movement in America: 1945-47, Chicago: University of Chicago Press.

Walsh, Bryan (2022) What the Doomsday Clock is really counting down to, Vox, January 21.

Wilson, Henrietta (2010) Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists, in Nigel J. Young (ed.) The Oxford International Encyclopedia of Peace, Oxford: Oxford University Press, pp. 217–220.
An excellent concise history of the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists.

External links

Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists. Official website.

Doomsday Clock.

Nuclear Notebook.

Related entries

human extinction | Manhattan Project | nuclear disarmament movement | nuclear warfare | Russell-Einstein Manifesto | Trinity

1. ^

   University of Chicago Library (2007) Guide to the Atomic Scientists of Chicago Records 1943-1955.

2. ^

   Mecklin, John (2023) A time of unprecedented danger: It is 90 seconds to midnight, Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists, January 24.

3. ^

   Kristensen, Hans &Korda, Matt (2023), Nuclear Notebook, Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists.