Looking forward and looking back

摘要

'Celebrate' may not be quite the right word given the challenges that remain, but in this issue of Medicine, Conflict and Survival we mark the fact that it is 50 years since the New England Journal of Medicine's landmark publication of a series of articles on 'The medical consequences of thermonuclear war'. The publication of those articles, in May 1962, was a hugely significant moment in the development of the public debate around nuclear weapons.