Doomsday Clock Moved Three Minutes Closer To Midnight

The Bulletin of Atomic Scientists, an online magazine with content about global security and public policy issues, announced on Jan 22 that the "Doomsday Clock," a visual metaphor by the online magazine, will be adjusted. The clock will now be three minutes away from midnight. Since 1984, this is the closest the clock had been to midnight.

According to the Washington Post, since 2012, the clock for the last 3 years had been at 11:55 pm, and now after the adjustment, the hands of the clock has been moved to 11:57 pm by moving it by two minutes. The adjustment of the clock denoted that the end of the humanity might be almost here. The Bulletin of Atomic Scientists mets up regularly to discuss if the clock, which is a countdown to probable global catastrophe, needed adjustment.

The Bulletin of Atomic Scientists, in a statement, said that this time, the Doomsday Clock was adjusted for expressing the dissatisfaction that the magazine felt on the climate change as well as the modernisation of global nuclear weapons. It added that the issues posed undeniable threat to the existence of humanity.

The board believes that the adjustment of the hand of the clock by the board always drew attention to world crisis that threatened the survival of humanity. The reasoning by the group focused mostly on nuclear weapons and the wilingness of the superpowers to use them.

A few people were working on the Manhattan Project, a development project that was involved in the production of the first atomic bombs during World War II, founded The Bulletin of Atomic Scientists. A nuclear physicist involved with the Manhattan Project, Alexander Langsdorf, was married to Martyl Langsdorf, an artist, who illustrated the clock for the magazine and initially set it to 11:53 pm.

In 1949, the clock was moved to 11:57 pm by Alexander Langsdorf. Since the clock came into existence in 1947, the clock has had adjustments between 2 and 17 minutes close to midnight. The closest that the clock has ever gotten to midnight was in October 1953 when the US tested its first thermonuclear device. It was set at 11:58 pm.

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