The last change was in 2007

Jan 12, 2010 08:31 GMT  ·  By

The Doomsday Clock is a symbolic clock that was created in 1947 by a group of concerned physicists. Its main goal is to provide an alert of how close the world is to a nuclear disaster. Through it, the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists is trying to make people aware of the possible effects of a nuclear holocaust. It appeared just two years after the Untied States used the two atomic bombs at Hiroshima and Nagasaki to subdue the Japanese Empire and force it to surrender.

Since then, it has constantly received updates, and it currently stands just five minutes to annihilation. When it reaches zero, it means that chances of an armed nuclear conflict are massive. The last update was received in 2007, when its operators at the University of Chicago in Illinois subtracted two minutes, moving the minute hand from 11:53 pm to 11:55 pm. The decision was made because, at the time, Iran made its nuclear ambitions public, and North Korea tested another atomic weapon. At the same time, the United States placed an increased emphasis on military nuclear unity.

In addition to these changes, the team behind the clock also determined that the vast majority of nuclear waste was not properly secured after being discarded. This presented an opportunity for terrorists and other ill-intended people to collect it, and create dirty bombs, thus increasing the threat level. Since 1991, when the clock was at 11:43 pm, the minute hand has only been moved towards Doomsday, and never one step backwards. The last time the alert level was downgraded was when the United States and the Soviet Union signed the Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty (START).

A new change is scheduled to take place this week, but experts at the University of Chicago have not announced how they will move the minute hand. According to LiveScience, the event will take place at 10 am EST (1500 GMT) on January 14, at the New York Academy of Sciences Building, in New York City. The change will not be made on the real clock, in the sense that a representation will be used for the ceremony. However, the change will reflect in the real clock, in Illinois as well. Keep an eye on this space for more details on this.