Public health expert and Bulletin columnist Laura Kahn argues for changes in regulation of gain-of-function research and mandatory reporting of laboratory-acquired infections to guard against lab leaks that could start future pandemics. | Continue reading
The Turkish made Kargu-2 drone can operate in autonomous mode and may have been used to attack retreating soldiers fighting against the UN-recognized government in Libya. There's an ongoing global debate about these sorts of weapons, and the Kargu-2 is evidence that it's happenin … | Continue reading
Thinkers on existential risk have given grim odds for whether humanity and civilization will survive very much longer. People have so many more efficient means of ending the human enterprise than in earlier times. While many projections of doom haven't panned out, they have serve … | Continue reading
If the case that SARS2 originated in a lab is so substantial, why isn’t this more widely known? As is now obvious, there are many people who have reason not to talk about it. | Continue reading
If the case that SARS2 originated in a lab is so substantial, why isn’t this more widely known? As is now obvious, there are many people who have reason not to talk about it. | Continue reading
Market forces alone mean that we’re on track to produce enough electric vehicles (EVs) to save 2 million barrels of oil a day. But a new study finds we could almost double that figure, if policymakers were to prime the pump for the EV industry. | Continue reading
Keeping land-based missiles in underground tunnels—where they would be essentially invulnerable to attack and therefore need not be kept on high-alert status—is a realistic option that has not received sufficient attention. Moving to such a basing system could open dramatic possi … | Continue reading
Changes to the Earth’s axis highlight how real and profound an impact humans are having on the planet. | Continue reading
When it comes to future autonomous weapons, many governments say they want to ensure humans remain in control over lethal force. The example of the heavily automated air defense systems that militaries use to guard protected airspace shows that doing so will be difficult. | Continue reading
This spring, the biotechnology company Oxitec plans to release genetically modified mosquitoes in the Florida Keys to combat dengue fever, a potentially life-threatening disease, and other mosquito-borne viruses — such as Zika — mainly transmitted by the Aedes aegypti mosquito. B … | Continue reading
With three major drivers pushing it forward, could fusion finally be ready for the next big step: a minimum-cost pilot plant capable of putting electricity on the grid—and just as importantly, qualifying the technologies needed for an economically competitive commercial power pla … | Continue reading
Drone swarms are getting larger and, coupled with autonomous capability, they could pose a real threat. Think “Nagasaki” to get a sense of the death toll a massive drone swarm could theoretically inflict. | Continue reading
Underground peat fires refuse to die, even when flooded with water, making them into “zombie fires.” So scientists developed a new weapon to put them down for good. They hope. | Continue reading
One of Bill Gates’ causes is to replace power plants fueled by coal and natural gas with climate-friendly alternatives. That has led the billionaire philanthropist and Microsoft co-founder to embrace nuclear power. But Gates has been persuaded to back a costly reactor design fuel … | Continue reading
The existence of tribes, nations, and other social systems comprised of non-warring neighbors demonstrates that living without war is possible. Could emulating the features of existing non-warring systems provide insights and methods for turning back the Doomsday Clock? | Continue reading
“Father of the internet” Vinton Cerf and “father of public key cryptography” Martin Hellman agree that the US needs to understand the risk of nuclear war. However, they disagree about the best means for understanding that risk. In side-by-side opinion pieces, Cerf and Hellman pre … | Continue reading
The hackers behind the recent SolarWinds attack on US government agencies and others like them will be inside federal computers for a long time. Maybe it's time to lay some traps for them. | Continue reading
The president of the United States and his wife have tested positive for COVID-19, CNN reports, based on the president’s own Twitter post. | Continue reading
Self-spreading vaccines that use viruses to confer immunity instead of disease among wild animals could help stop animal diseases from jumping to humans, quashing the next pandemic before it starts. But the new technology is not without risks. | Continue reading
Self-spreading vaccines that use viruses to confer immunity instead of disease among wild animals could help stop animal diseases from jumping to humans, quashing the next pandemic before it starts. But the new technology is not without risks. | Continue reading
"There’s no fundamental physics reason that someday we’re not going to have a non-invasive brain-machine interface. It’s just a matter of time. And we have to manage that eventuality.” — neuroscience expert Jack Gallant | Continue reading
US nuclear plants are getting permission to stay online for up to 80 years, but current regulations aren’t keeping up with climate realities. | Continue reading
There has been a lack of research and education into the effects of depleted uranium munitions on post-conflict communities in Iraq and Syria, and cleanup efforts by both UN member countries and affected communities have failed. | Continue reading
On the 75th anniversary of the first nuclear explosion, a novel retelling of the Trinity test, woven entirely from words the Manhattan Project's protagonists first published in the Bulletin. | Continue reading
Although terrorists who acquire a nuclear device would have many options beyond its outright detonation, the US strategy is to cut off all options by denying them nuclear material and technology in the first place. | Continue reading
In 2015, China began construction on a new plutonium reprocessing facility. Until now, it’s exact location had not been publicly identified. | Continue reading
Russian satellites are closely tailing US satellites and Moscow is testing its own anti-satellite weapon. Could these belligerent actions be fueling a dangerous arms race in space? | Continue reading
Government contracting officers are legally required to promote competition, with a few exceptions. What happens if those exceptions become the rule? | Continue reading
Some researchers think a laboratory accident could have released the viral ancestor of SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19. | Continue reading
It is 100 seconds to midnight. | Continue reading
Doomsday Clock Now Closer to Midnight Than Ever in Its History; Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists Cite Worsening Nuclear Threat, Lack of Climate Action & Rise of “Cyber-Enabled Disinformation Campaigns” in Moving Clock Hand; Bulletin Joined by The Elders in Announcement Today. WA … | Continue reading
It is 100 seconds to midnight. | Continue reading
It is 100 seconds to midnight. | Continue reading
Although activists are calling for an international ban on lethal autonomous weapons, incorporating AI into weapons systems may make them more accurate and result in fewer civilian casualties during war. | Continue reading
Andrew Yang, a 2020 presidential candidate, has been touting the benefits of thorium as a solution for America’s clean energy needs. But he’s wrong about a couple of key facts. | Continue reading
An explosion at one of the two centers in the world that have repositories of a virus that causes smallpox unnerved health and biosecurity professionals this past September. While it appears that the pathogens at the VECTOR research center in Russia were unaffected, officials the … | Continue reading
Google announced a breakthrough in quantum computing, a perennially just-over-the-horizon technology that promises to dramatically increase the speed at which computers can complete complex tasks. While the technology promises to unlock vast new areas of knowledge, it carries wit … | Continue reading
Almost all of the details about previous withdrawals have remained a secret, but if the United States wanted to evacuate the nuclear weapons from Turkey, here’s how it might do it. | Continue reading
Publicly, it calls for climate action. Privately, Google contributes to some of the most notorious climate-deniers in Washington. (Incidentally, the company removed “Don’t be evil” from its code of conduct in April 2018.) | Continue reading
The combination of a lack of Russian situational awareness, dangerously short warning times, high-readiness alert postures, and the increasing US strike capacity resulting from a new fuzing system for submarine-based nuclear missiles has created a deeply destabilizing and dangero … | Continue reading
The global sustainability of nuclear power thus relies on efforts to increase its economic viability. But how? Standardized designs and downsized reactors can help. Governments can offer additional support. But that still might not be enough to keep the nuclear power industry ali … | Continue reading
Whether through highly-coordinated attacks on federal tax credits or interventions in arcane state-level proceedings, or through public and covert efforts to spread disinformation, the beneficiaries of the Kochs’strategic funding are working to preserve the market demand for the … | Continue reading
It’s time for a green Geneva Convention | Continue reading
In this interview, Alex Wellerstein discusses the first prototype of NUKEMAP VR, the possibilities it unlocks, and the feedback he has received so far. | Continue reading
The Vector Institute in Siberia is one of two repositories in the world known to store live smallpox virus. An explosion rocked the facility Monday. While Russian emergency responders consider the explosion a major incident, the head administrator of Koltsovo city, where the inst … | Continue reading
New weapons like hypersonic missiles are potentially reducing the amount of time that nuclear decision makers have to respond to an attack. Two US deterrence experts are proposing an artificial intelligence-based nuclear command, control, and communications system to ease this ti … | Continue reading
New weapons like hypersonic missiles are potentially reducing the amount of time that nuclear decision makers have to respond to an attack. Two US deterrence experts are proposing an artificial intelligence-based nuclear command, control, and communications system to ease this ti … | Continue reading
A sophisticated web of troll farms, fake social media account operators, and public relations firms that has sprung up in the Philippines in recent years may be transforming the country into an export center for disinformation. Some worry that the country's trolls could play a ro … | Continue reading