30 seconds closer to disaster Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists

It is now 30 seconds closer to midnight on the Doomsday Clock, the symbol maintained by the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists to show the state of threats to human civilisation.

Now set at two and a half minutes to midnight, the only time the setting has been more dire was in the 1950s when the clock stood at two minutes to midnight in the depths of the Cold War.

The clock was introduced in 1947 (set at 7 minutes to midnight) as a graphic indication of how close we …