Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists, 5.1.26

Posted: 5th January 2026

January 5, 2026

Science and Security Board Chair Daniel Holz speaks to the press at the 2025 Doomsday Clock announcement (Credit: Jamie Christiani).

Join us for the 2026 Doomsday Clock Announcement

Since 1947, the Clock has served as a metaphor for how close the world is to destroying itself. On January 27th, globally recognized experts from the Bulletin’s Science and Security Board will join Nobel Prize winner Maria Ressato unveil the 2026 Clock setting. Read more.

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

In the 80th year of the nuclear age, with just 89 seconds left on the Doomsday Clock, every nuclear challenge is trending in the wrong direction, writes BulletinPresident and CEO Alexandra Bell. This magazine article is available to all readers for a limited time.

No, the United States does not need a costly national cancer study near nuclear reactors

Routine reactor emissions pose no meaningful health risk to the US workers and population, argue health physicist PJ Seel and nuclear engineer Adam Stein. Read more.

How Hans Bethe and Richard Garwin served the missile defense system they publicly criticized

During the Cold War, two physicists became public “opponents” of the Pentagon’s antiballistic missile systems. But they kept doing private work on behalf of the administration’s policy, writes Benjamin Wilson, an associate professor of history of science at Harvard University. Read more.

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

Editor in chief John Mecklin interviews former Bulletin executive director Kennette Benedict for the introduction to the Bulletin’s 80th anniversary magazine issue. This magazine article is available to all readers for a limited time.

IN THE NEWS

Dismiss the Doomsday Clock at your own peril

As the 2026 Clock announcement approaches, Bloomberg opinion columnist Andreas Kluth shares his take on the globally recognized symbol of risk. Read more.

BULLETIN EVENT

Art + Science: Harnessing the Power of Art and Storytelling

How do we harness the power of art in drawing attention to the most pressing global threats? How do we support artists in the most trying of times to tell the stories that bring us all together?

To explore these questions, join us for a virtual event featuring David Harrington, founder of the Kronos Quartet, whose music has long confronted the urgencies of social change; science fiction author Kim Stanley Robinson, whose work imagines social transformation through engaging, creative prose; Lovely Umayam, a nuclear policy expert rooted in activism and art; and Alexandra Bell, who is bringing the Bulletin’s long-standing devotion of arts-driven global engagement into a new era. Register here.

A cartoon by Paul Verry featured in an Bulletin magazine issue in July 1988.

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