Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists
The cover of the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists has featured the famous Doomsday Clock since it debuted in 1947, when it was set at seven minutes to midnight.
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| Language | English |
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| Edited by | John Mecklin |
| Publication details | |
| Publisher |
Taylor and Francis for the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists (United States)
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Publication history
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1945–present |
| Frequency | Bimonthly |
| 0.690 | |
| Indexing | |
| ISSN |
0096-3402 (print) 1938-3282 (web) |
| LCCN | 48034039 |
| CODEN | BASIAP |
| OCLC no. | 470268256 |
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The Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists is a nontechnical academic journal, published by Taylor and Francis that covers global security and public policy issues related to the dangers posed by nuclear and other weapons of mass destruction, climate change, and emerging technologies and diseases. It has been published continuously since 1945, when it was founded by former Manhattan Project physicists after the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki as the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists of Chicago.
One of the driving forces behind the creation of the Bulletin was the amount of public interest surrounding atomic energy at the dawn of the Atomic Age. In 1945 the public interest in atomic warfare and weaponry inspired contributors to the Bulletin to attempt to inform those interested about the dangers and destruction that atomic war could bring about. To convey the particular peril posed by nuclear weapons, the Bulletin devised the Doomsday Clock in 1947, with an original setting of seven minutes to midnight. Using the imagery of apocalypse (midnight) and the contemporary idiom of nuclear explosion (countdown to zero), the Clock conveys man-made existential threats to humanity and the planet.
The minute hand of the Clock first moved closer to midnight in response to changing world events in 1949, following the first Soviet nuclear test, and is now set at two and a half minutes to midnight. the Doomsday Clock is recognized as a universal symbol of threats to humanity from a variety of sources: nuclear and other weapons of mass destruction, climate change, and emerging technologies. In 2015, the Bulletin unveiled its Doomsday Dashboard, an interactive infographic that illustrates some of the data the Bulletin's Science and Security Board takes into account when deciding the time of the Clock each year.
In the 1950s, the Bulletin was involved in the formation of the Pugwash Conferences on Science and World Affairs, annual conferences of scientists concerned about nuclear proliferation, and, more broadly, the role of science in modern society.
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