Doomsday Clock

The Doomsday Clock is a symbolic clock face, representing an ominous oscillating countdown, maintained since 1947 by the Science and Security Board of the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists at the University of Chicago. The closer they set the Clock to midnight, the closer the Science and Security Board believes the world to be to global disaster. The most recent officially announced setting—five minutes to midnight (11:55pm)—was made on January 14, 2012.

The 5th Annual Doomsday Clock Symposium was November 14, 2013; it was a daylong event that was open to the public and featured panelists discussing various issues on the theme "Communicating Catastrophe." There was also an evening event at the Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden in conjunction with the Hirshhorn's current exhibit, "Damage Control: Art and Destruction Since 1950." The panel discussions, held at the American Association for the Advancement of Science, were streamed live from the Bulletin's website, and can still be viewed there. An announcement about whether the hands will move again will be made in January, 2014. Reflecting international events dangerous to humankind, the Clock's hands have been adjusted twenty times since its inception in 1947, when the Clock was initially set to seven minutes to midnight (11:53pm).

Originally, the Clock analogy represented the threat of global nuclear war; however, since 2007 it has also reflected climate change and new developments in the life sciences that could inflict irrevocable harm.

Since its inception, the Clock has been depicted on every cover of the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists. Its first representation was in 1947, when magazine co-founder Hyman Goldsmith asked artist Martyl Langsdorf (wife of Manhattan Project research associate and Szilárd petition signatory Alexander Langsdorf, Jr.) to design a cover for the magazine's June 1947 issue. In January, 2007, designer Michael Bierut, who serves on the Bulletin's Governing Board, redesigned the Clock to give it a more modern feel. In 2009, the Bulletin ceased its print edition and was the first publication in the US to become entirely digital; the Clock is now found as part of the logo on the Bulletin's website. Information about the annual Doomsday Clock Symposium, a timeline of the Clock's settings, and multimedia shows about the Clock's history and culture can also be found on the Bulletin's website.

Time changes
In 1947, during the Cold War, the Clock was started at seven minutes to midnight and was subsequently advanced or rewound per the state of the world and nuclear war prospects. The Clock's setting is decided by the Science and Security Board of the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists and is an adjunct to the essays in the Bulletin on global affairs. The Clock is not set and reset in real time as events occur; rather than respond to each and every crisis as it happens, the Science and Security Board meets twice annually to discuss global events in a deliberative manner. The closest nuclear war threat, the Cuban Missile Crisis in 1962, reached crisis, climax, and resolution before the Clock could be set to reflect that possible doomsday.