The Doomsday Clock is closer to midnight than ever before. What does it mean? How is this determined? Can the clock be wound back?
What Doomsday Clock reveals. Physicists like J. Robert Oppenheimer and Albert Einstein were among its creators, who sought to
Scientists and global leaders revealed on Tuesday that the "Doomsday Clock" has been reset to the closest humanity has ever come to self-annihilation.
Iconic Doomsday Clock moves one second closer to midnight as global existential threats rage. Clock factors include nuclear weapons, climate crisis, artificial intelligence, infectious diseases, and conflicts in Ukraine and the Middle East.
The Chicago-based Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists, which runs the clock, decided to move the clock one second closer to midnight because of climate change, nuclear threats and biological hazards.
The Doomsday Clock is now set at 89 seconds to midnight, the closest it has ever been to implosion. The proximity to midnight reflects the scale of escalating
"The 2025 Clock time signals that the world is on a course of unprecedented risk, and that continuing on the current path is a form of madness," the Bulletin said. "The United States, China, and Russia have the prime responsibility to pull the world back from the brink. The world depends on immediate action."
When making the determination, they ask two questions — is humanity safer or at greater risk than last year, and is humanity safer or at greater risk than when the clock was created.
In a statement outlining the change, the Board highlighted three main reasons for “moving the Doomsday Clock from 90 seconds to 89 seconds to midnight.” These include ongoing nuclear risks, accelerating climate disasters, and emerging biological and technological dangers.
The Doomsday Clock, a concept designed by the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists to represent humanity’s proximity to a global catastrophe, is being updated Tuesday.
What exactly is the Doomsday Clock? Why does it exist, and what’s with all the drama about “seconds to midnight”? Strap in for an informative dive into this unsettling tradition, peppered with just enough sarcasm to keep the existential dread at bay.