This Word Means: Doomsday Clock

Speaking of the slide in relations between the United States and its European allies, Merz said it was now “five minutes to midnight for Europe” – and urged Europeans to become self-reliant.

WHAT’S THE CONNECTION?

The expression “x minutes to midnight” is associated with the Doomsday Clock, a symbolic representation of how far (or near) humanity is from a hypothetical end-of-the-world scenario. In this metaphor, ‘Doomsday’ is at midnight.

WHOSE IDEA WAS THIS?

The Doomsday Clock was imagined by the Bulletin of Atomic Scientists in 1947 to assess the probability of destruction of the world in a nuclear holocaust.

The Bulletin had been founded two years previously by Albert Einstein, J. Robert Oppenheimer, Leo Szilard and other scientists who worked on the first atomic weapons.

Szilard and his colleagues had urged the US government to not use the atomic bombs in Japan, and called the bombing of Hiroshima “one of the greatest blunders of history”. A month later, they formed the Bulletin of Atomic Scientists “to equip the public, policymakers and scientists with the information needed to reduce man-made threats to our existence”.

A design of the Clock, with a minute hand nearing midnight, was created by the artist Martyl Langdorf in consultation with the Bulletin scientists. The iconic image first appeared in the June 1947 edition of the Bulletin.

The Clock was reimagined by graphic designer Michael Bierut in 2007.

WHO CONTROLS THE CLOCK?

At the time the Clock was created, the US and the USSR were racing each other to build ever deadlier nuclear weapons. Today, the Clock and the Bulletin recognise more contemporary threats.

Until 1973, the movement of the Clock hand was controlled by Bulletin editor Eugene Rabinowitch, who consulted with scientists and policy experts to set the Clock. He explained the logic of his decision in a statement in the corresponding Bulletin.

Since Rabinowitch’s death, the Clock has been set by the Bulletin’s Science and Security Board, a group of 18 experts from diverse backgrounds including nuclear science, policy and diplomacy, and military expertise. This group consults with various subject experts and the Bulletin’s Board of Sponsors, which comprises nine Nobel laureates.

WHERE’S THE CLOCK AT NOW?

The position of the Clock is announced at the end of January every year. The Clock currently stands at 89 seconds to midnight, one second closer than it has been in the last two years.

This is also the closest that the Clock has ever been to the metaphorical apocalypse. The reasons, according to the Bulletin, are “the threats posed by nuclear weapons, climate change, and the potential misuse of biological science and a variety of emerging technologies”.

The statement mentioned the Russia-Ukraine war, with the threat of using nuclear weapons, and the conflict in the Middle East; the unprecedented rise in sea levels and global surface temperatures due to climate change; emerging and re-emerging diseases; military technologies using AI, and widespread disinformation.