Chethana Janith, Jadetimes Staff
C. Janith is a Jadetimes news reporter and sub-editor covering science and geopolitics.
The Doomsday Clock is a metaphor that signifies how close humanity is to self-destruction, primarily due to the threats of nuclear weapons and climate change.
The hands of the clock are set by the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists, a group formed by Manhattan Project scientists at the University of Chicago, who were instrumental in building the atomic bomb but protested its use against people.
Currently, the Doomsday Clock is set at 89 seconds to midnight.
What are the origins of the Doomsday Clock?
The Doomsday Clock symbolizes how precariously close we are to annihilating ourselves with dangerous technologies of our own creation. It serves as a warning of the metaphorical “minutes to midnight” that humanity has left. Updated annually by the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists, its purpose is to alert the public and inspire action.
When established in 1947, the Doomsday Clock's setting reflected the threat posed by nuclear weapons, which the Bulletin scientists regarded as the greatest danger to humanity. In 2007, the Bulletin began to include catastrophic disruptions from climate change in its deliberations for setting the clock's hands.
The furthest setting of the clock was 17 minutes to midnight in 1991, following the collapse of the Soviet Union and the signing of the Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty. Previously, the closest setting was two minutes to midnight - first in 1953, when the U.S. and Soviet Union both tested thermonuclear weapons, and then in 2018, citing “a breakdown in the international order” among nuclear actors and the persistent inaction on climate change.
In 2025, the clock moved to its closest setting ever: 89 seconds to midnight.
How was the Bulletin of Atomic Scientists founded?
Most members of the Manhattan Project, the secret government mission that created the first atomic bomb, were unaware of what they were building. However, the scientists knew, and some had reservations from the beginning.
Physicists Leo Szilard and Albert Einstein wrote to President Franklin Roosevelt in 1939, alerting him to the potential of an atomic bomb and their suspicions that Germany might be able to construct one. Six years later, in June 1945, Szilard, along with Nobel laureate James Franck and other Manhattan Project scientists, signed a cautionary document known as the Franck Report, which they sent to the U.S. Secretary of War. They advocated for a public demonstration of the weapon in an uninhabited area to pressure Japan into surrendering. When the document failed to gain traction, they circulated a second petition against the use of the weapon, signed by nearly 70 Manhattan Project employees.
Despite their efforts, in August 1945, the U.S. dropped atomic bombs on the cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki.
Upon learning that the bomb had been dropped on Hiroshima, Szilard called it “one of the greatest blunders of history” (in a note on stationery from the University of Chicago Quadrangle Club to Gertrud Weiss, the professor of medicine whom he later married).
Szilard and many other Manhattan Project scientists quickly convened to discuss how to educate the public about science and its implications for humanity. By September, they had formed the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists of Chicago - later shortened to the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists as membership grew. Their mission was clear: “to equip the public, policymakers, and scientists with the information needed to reduce man-made threats to our existence.”
“For the first time in modern history, scientists were saying that it was necessary to make judgments about what to do with their inventions,” remarked John A. Simpson, a young UChicago scientist who had worked on the Manhattan Project and served as the first chairman of the Bulletin.
For 75 years, the Bulletin has continued as an independent, nonprofit organization, publishing a bimonthly magazine. According to its website, its mission is to “gather a diverse array of the most informed and influential voices tracking man-made threats” to inform the public and the world at large.
How was the Doomsday Clock created?
The first few Bulletins were mimeographed collections of articles. However, as the publication expanded, its editors decided to appeal to a wider audience with a designed cover. Bulletin member Martyl Langsdorf, an artist primarily known for her abstract landscapes, agreed to create an illustration.
Responding to the urgency conveyed in the meetings, she designed a minimalist yet memorable clock with its hands set at seven minutes to midnight, partly because it “looked good to [her] eye.” Since then, the Bulletin has used the clock to depict the existential threats facing humanity. A full timeline of the clock’s hand placements is available on the Bulletin’s website.
Where is the Doomsday Clock located?
The Doomsday Clock is located at the Bulletin offices at 1307 E. 60th St., in the lobby of the Keller Center, home to the University of Chicago Harris School of Public Policy.
How is the Doomsday Clock set?
Until his death in 1973, Bulletin editor Eugene Rabinowitch decided whether the clock hand should be moved. As a leader in the international disarmament movement, he actively engaged with policy experts and scientists worldwide, using these discussions to set the clock and explain his reasoning in the Bulletin’s pages.
Today, the Bulletin’s Science and Security Board sets the clock. This group of 18 experts, with diverse backgrounds in policy, diplomacy, military history, and nuclear science, meets twice a year to discuss events, policies, and trends. They consult widely with their colleagues across various disciplines and seek the views of the Bulletin’s Board of Sponsors, which includes multiple Nobel laureates. Each year, the clock’s position is announced in late January.
The Bulletin currently recognizes three major threats to civilization: climate change, nuclear proliferation, and “disruptive technologies,” including bio- and cybersecurity. “Each of these threats has the potential to destroy civilization and render the Earth largely uninhabitable by human beings,” it states. Its public dashboard constantly tracks these threats.
What happens when the Doomsday Clock hits midnight?
When originally launched, the clock’s countdown referred to a potential exchange of nuclear weapons, which would have catastrophic consequences for humanity and the planet.
Today, the threat from nuclear weapons remains, but another significant threat is climate change. “It’s much harder to have a kind of before and after midnight clear sense of what that means [for climate],” former director Rachel Bronson told the University of Chicago’s Big Brains podcast. “That being said, this metaphor is important because for the climate, there are tipping points that you can’t come back from. And you won’t feel those effects until years out, but it’ll be very difficult if even possible to recover from.”
However, Bulletin members have consistently emphasized that the clock is not intended to instill fear but rather to inspire action. Board member Prof. Robert Rosner likens the clock to “the canary in the coal mine,” prompting miners to take quick action to save their lives.
“The number of ways in which we walk blithely into Armageddon is very high. But that’s something all of us can help address,” said Daniel Holz, UChicago professor of astronomy and astrophysics and chair of the Science and Security Board. “If we act now, we might avoid some of the worst, civilization-threatening outcomes. Agitate for change! It’s not too late.”
“Past experience has taught us, even during the most dismal periods of the Cold War, we can as a people come together to address our challenges,” said Rosner, former chair of the Bulletin’s science and security board and the William E. Wrather Distinguished Service Professor in Astronomy & Astrophysics and Physics at the University of Chicago. “It is now high time to do so again.”
