What House of Dynamite (Netflix, https://www.imdb.com/title/tt32376165/) quietly reminds us in 2025 is that the world we inherited after the Cold War has drifted into a precarious corner of space and time. Perhaps this moment is one of the greatest tests our species has ever faced.
For decades, science has too often been used as a tool of division — a way to separate people, to deepen suspicion, to justify power. Yet the true purpose of science is the opposite: it is meant to guide humanity upward through time’s unfolding, along the arrow of entropy, toward deeper understanding of a more resilient future. Science should be a force that sustains life, not one that threatens to extinguish it.
Somehow, we have arrived at an era where we struggle to understand even ourselves. We stumble in disagreement at the very opportunity, we fail at resolving conflict, and we overlook the suffering we may be planting for future generations. Our arrogance toward tomorrow — towards the youth of our planet — has become an habit. The recent behaviours of geopolitical powers are, in the end, only a mirror — reflecting the inner confusion and fracture of our collective state of mind.
And then there is the stark reminder: thirty minutes. A span barely noticeable in a human life, yet enough, through our own thoughtless actions, to unravel the world we know. House of Dynamite presses this truth upon us with unsettling clarity.
Perhaps this is the moment for a global pause: a quiet, honest reflection on what we are doing on this planet, and who we wish to become. It feels like time, long overdue, for a change of course.
Materials at Extremes 