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Newswise — The Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists will honor its 60th anniversary on Saturday, Dec. 3, with a public forum on doomsday and a screening of Stanley Kubrick's 1964 masterpiece, "Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb." Both events are free and open to the public. On Aug. 7, 1945, the day after the United States dropped the atomic bomb on Hiroshima, scientists working on the Manhattan Project at the University of Chicago organized the Atomic Scientists of Chicago to campaign for the peaceful use of nuclear power under international control. Three of the scientists made their case in an article that filled two full pages of the Oct. 29, 1945, issue of LIFE magazine. In December 1945, the scientists co-founded the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists. The first issue appeared on Dec. 10, 1945. The Bulletin soon gave birth to the Doomsday Clock, which has become a widely recognized icon symbolizing the threat of nuclear weapons and other dangers to global security. The publication still makes its home on the University of Chicago campus and has become a leading resource for information about weapons of mass destruction, international security issues, the arms trade and the nuclear industry. The day's events will begin with a panel discussion on "Avoiding Doomsday in the Contemporary World," from 1 to 3:30 p.m. in Mandel Hall, 1135 E. 57th Street, on the University of Chicago campus. The event continues a tradition of public dialogue that began at a conference on atomic energy convened by University of Chicago President Robert Hutchins on Sept. 19, 1945. That date marked the first time that economists, political scientists, government officials, journalists and atomic experts confronted the question of how the new technology ought to be managed in the future. The panelists for Saturday's discussion will be Nobel laureate James Cronin, University Professor Emeritus in Physics at the University of Chicago; Rose Gottemoeller, senior associate, Carnegie Endowment for International Peace; Kevin Murphy, the George J. Stigler Distinguished Service Professor in Economics and the Graduate School of Business at the University of Chicago; Wolfgang Panofsky, director emeritus, Stanford Linear Accelerator Center; and Janet Rowley, Blum-Riese Distinguished Service Professor of Medicine at the University of Chicago. Serving as moderator will be Thomas Rosenbaum, the University of Chicago's Vice President for Research and for Argonne National Laboratory. Delivering welcoming remarks will be University of Chicago President Don Randel. Closing remarks will be offered by Robert McCormick Adams, secretary emeritus of the Smithsonian Institution. A screening of "Dr. Strangelove" will then begin at 4 p.m. in the Max Palevsky Cinema at Ida Noyes Hall, 1212 E. 59th Street. Seating is available on a first-come, first-serve basis, but reservations are available for both events by e-mailing [email protected], or by calling (773) 834-9988. For an article published in the October 2005 issue of the University of Chicago Magazine about the Bulletin's 60th anniversary, see http://magazine.uchicago.edu/0510/features/nuclear.shtml. To visit the Bulletin's own web site, see http://www.thebulletin.org/index.htm.
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