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What is the doomsday clock?

The doomsday clock is an imaginary clock created by the board of directors of the magazine Bulletin of the Atomic Scientiststo illustrate the threat of total destruction posed by nuclear weapons. On the clock, midnight is "doomsday," the time of global destruction. When the clock first appeared on the cover of the magazine in 1947, scientists set it at seven minutes before midnight. In the decades since then the clock has been adjusted to reflect changes in global stability.

The clock came closest to "doomsday" in 1953, when it reached two minutes before midnight shortly after the United States and the Soviet Union each tested hydrogen bombs. The farthest the minute hand has ever been from striking midnight was in 1991, when the United States and the Soviet Union signed the Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty (START) and announced cuts in the production of nuclear weapons. The clock was set at...

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