Doomsday Clock

"Minutes to Midnight" redirects here, along with other titles incorporating that term. For other uses, see Minutes to Midnight (disambiguation). For the Smashing Pumpkins song, see Doomsday Clock (song).

File:Doomsday clock.svg

As of 2008, The Doomsday Clock reads five-minutes-to-midnight.

The Doomsday Clock is a symbolic clock face, maintained since 1947 by the board of directors of the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists at the University of Chicago, that uses the analogy of the human race being at a time that is "minutes to midnight", wherein midnight represents "catastrophic destruction". Originally, the analogy represented the threat of global nuclear war, but since includes climate-changing technologies and "new developments in the life sciences and nanotechnology that could inflict irrevocable harm".

Since its inception, the clock has appeared 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 physicist Alexander Langsdorf, Jr.) to design a cover for the magazine's June 1947 issue.

The number of minutes before midnight – measuring the degree of nuclear, environmental, and technological threats to mankind – is periodically corrected; currently, the clock reads five minutes to midnight, having advanced two minutes on 17 January 2007.

Time changes

Cover of the 1947 Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists issue that first featured the Doomsday Clock at seven minutes to midnight.

In 1947, during the U.S.–U.S.S.R. Cold War, the clock was started at seven minutes to midnight, and subsequently advanced and rewound per the state of the world and nuclear war prospects. Setting the clock is relatively arbitrary, and decided by the directors of the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists reflecting global affairs. The clock has not always been set and reset as quickly as events occur; the closest nuclear war start, the Cuban Missile Crisis in 1962, reached crisis, climax, and resolution before it could be set to reflect that possible doomsday.

The most recent officially-announced setting — five minutes to midnight — was on 17 January 2007. Reflecting international events dangerous to mankind, the clock hands have been set eighteen times, since its initial start at seven minutes to midnight in 1947:

Doomsday Clock graph

Note: The lower the graph becomes, the higher the probability of catastrophe is deemed to be.

Year	Mins Left	Time	Change	Reason
1947	7	11:53	--	The initial setting of the Doomsday Clock.
1949	3	11:57	-4	The Soviet Union tests its first atomic bomb.
1953	2	11:58	-1	The United States and the Soviet Union test thermonuclear devices within nine months of one another. The clock is at its closest approach to midnight to date.
1960	7	11:53	+5	In response to a perception of increased scientific cooperation and public understanding of the dangers of nuclear weapons.
1963	12	11:48	+5	The United States and Soviet Union sign the Partial Test Ban Treaty, limiting atmospheric nuclear testing.
1968	7	11:53	-5	France and China acquire and test nuclear weapons (1960 and 1964 respectively), wars rage on in the Middle East, Indian subcontinent, and Vietnam.
1969	10	11:50	+3	The U.S. Senate ratifies the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty.
1972	12	11:48	+2	The United States and the Soviet Union sign the SALT I (Strategic Arms Limitation Treaty) and the Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty.
1974	9	11:51	-3	India tests a nuclear device (Smiling Buddha), SALT II talks stall.
1980	7	11:53	-2	Further deadlock in US-USSR talks, increase in nationalist wars and terrorist actions.
1981	4	11:56	-3	Arms race escalates, conflicts in Afghanistan, South Africa, and Poland add to world tension.
1984	3	11:57	-1	Further escalation of the arms race between the U.S. and the Soviet Union.
1988	6	11:54	+3	The U.S. and the Soviet Union sign treaty to eliminate intermediate-range nuclear forces, relations improve.
1990	10	11:50	+4	Fall of the Berlin Wall, dissolution of Iron Curtain sealing off Eastern Europe, Cold War nearing an end.
1991	17	11:43	+7	United States and Soviet Union sign the Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty. The clock is at its greatest distance from midnight so far.
1995	14	11:46	-3	Global military spending continues at Cold War levels; concerns about post-Soviet nuclear proliferation of weapons and brainpower.
1998	9	11:51	-5	Both India and Pakistan test nuclear weapons in a tit-for-tat show of aggression; the United States and Russia run into difficulties in further reducing stockpiles.
2002	7	11:53	-2	Little progress on global nuclear disarmament; United States rejects a series of arms control treaties and announces its intentions to withdraw from the Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty; concerns about the possibility of a nuclear terrorist attack due to the amount of weapon-grade nuclear materials that are unsecured and unaccounted for worldwide.
2007	5	11:55	-2	North Korea's test of a nuclear weapon, Iran's alleged nuclear ambitions, a renewed U.S. emphasis on the military utility of nuclear weapons, the failure to adequately secure nuclear materials, and the continued presence of some 26,000 nuclear weapons in the United States and Russia. Experts assessing the dangers posed to civilization have added climate change to the prospect of nuclear annihilation as the greatest threats to humankind.

In popular culture

In fiction

• The clock used in the Watchmen comic book series is a reference to The Doomsday Clock. On page 18 of issue #1, a newspaper on Adrian Veidt's desk bears the headline "Nuclear Doomsday Clock Stands At Five To Twelve, Warn Experts". Clocks on walls throughout the series display this time.
• The Doomsday Clock is referenced in Piers Anthony's novel, Wielding a Red Sword, in which the mythical Incarnation of War can control the position of the hands up to midnight and thereby bring about World War III.
• In the John Bellairs book, The House with a Clock in Its Walls, the mystery involves a clock that is ticking down toward doomsday.
• In the comic book Stormwatch P.H.D. #4 (April 2007), it is explained that the "original" clock gained magical powers, and if the hands were forcefully turned to 12, it would cause nuclear war.
• The clock is mentioned in Stephen King's short story "The End of the Whole Mess" and in his novel The Tommyknockers.
• The Doomsday Clock is briefly seen in Darwyn Cooke's comic book series, DC: The New Frontier and its film adaptation, Justice League: The New Frontier.

In music

• The Doomsday Clock is alluded to throughout "2 Minutes to Midnight", a single from Iron Maiden's album Powerslave. In the cover of the band's single, the mascot Eddie is sitting in ruin, with a nuclear explosion behind his back.
• The song "Def. Con. One." by the band Pop Will Eat Itself includes the lyric "Ten to doomsday, moving fast... Heads up! Mind that blast. No time to sleep, it's Def. Con. One. Can't get no sleep as the ticking ticks on."
• The song "Why Did I Fall For That" by The Who has the lines "Four minutes to midnight on a sunny day/Maybe if we smile the clock'll fade away/Maybe we can force the hands to just reverse/'Maybe' is a word, maybe 'maybe's' a curse... We simply believe that we'd remain intact/But history is asking why did you fall for that."
• The song "Easy/Lucky/Free" by Bright Eyes contains the lyrics, "I set my watch to the atomic clock. I hear the crowd count down 'til the bomb gets dropped. I always figured there'd be time enough; I never let it get me down."
• The song "Doomsday Clock" by Smashing Pumpkins, on their album Zeitgeist, is titled after the Doomsday Clock and contains lyrics referring to a possibility of an apocalyptic catastrophe happening.
• The Doomsday Clock is directly mentioned in the Ozzy Osbourne song "Thank God for the Bomb" on the album The Ultimate Sin. It is, however, cited in a manner that is inconsistent with the clock's purpose. "The face of the doomsday clock / Has launched a thousand wars / As we near the final hour / Time is the only foe we have."
• Australian band Midnight Oil discuss the Doomsday Clock and the threat of nuclear war in their song "Minutes to Midnight" from the album Red Sails in the Sunset. The album cover depicted the disturbing scene of the city of Sydney after a fictional nuclear attack.
• "Midnight in a Perfect World" by DJ Shadow, featuring Gift of Gab (from group Blackalicious), alludes to nuclear war and that we are "now approaching midnight", especially in the full lyrical "Gab Mix" off the Endtroducing..... reissue from 2005.
• On the cover of American band Alive's album 11:59, the Trinity test's rising fireball can be seen with the text "It's later than we thought..." written at the bottom.
• Chaos Theory by Jumpsteady makes mention of the Doomsday Clock in the opening song "Outcha Mouth", saying "I'm the last second, sound of doomsday clock, like an open box of anthrax...".
• Industrial band Funker Vogt refers heavily to the Doomsday Clock during the chorus of their track "History", a single from the album Survivor, which follows the themes of apocalyptic warfare. Specifically with the lines "The war will soon begin. It's already ten to twelve".
• In the music video for "Russians" by Sting, the Doomsday Clock is represented by the clock ticking over the main doorway.
• In ABC's music video "S.O.S", the Doomsday Clock was used as the main theme throughout the video.
• Linkin Park's third album, Minutes to Midnight, is a reference to the Doomsday Clock. In the music video for "Shadow of the Day", the current time is shown at the beginning of the video; by the end, it would have nearly reached midnight.
• In Ozzy Osbourne's "Black Rain" album a song titled "Countdown's Begun" makes reference to the clock.
• Punk band Civil Blitzkrieg's second album is entitled 5 Minutes To Midnight. The band has stated that it is a reference to the current setting of the Doomsday Clock.
• In the music video for the song Party At Ground Zero, by Fishbone, there is a brief shot of a clock pointing to midnight, followed shortly by footage of a nuclear explosion.
• The song "The Movie's Over" by Australian band Cog contains the lines "there's just minutes to midnight" and "it's almost midnight" as well as references to war and "final days".
• 'Seven Minutes to Midnight' was the second and final single released by Pete Wylie's Wah! Heat incarnation in 1980.
• In the song Turn Your Back by Billy Talent and Anti-Flag, the first verse is reference to the Doomsday Clock.

In television

• Glenn Beck had a large Doomsday Clock on the set of his CNN Headline News television show, and he would occasionally adjust the time based on the news of the day.
• The title of the Venture Brothers episode "Twenty Years to Midnight" is a reference to the Doomsday clock.
• The eighth episode of the series Heroes is titled "Seven Minutes to Midnight", which was the time on the clock at the release of the episode. Also, the villain Sylar wears a watch that stopped at seven minutes to midnight. The series was filmed and began to air prior to the 2007 adjustment of the Doomsday clock, which until then did indeed read seven minutes to midnight.
• The Doctor Who episode "Four to Doomsday" was first aired in 1982, when the clock was at four minutes to midnight.
• In the teletoon show Johnny Test a episode shows the doomsday clock at 5 minutes to midnight in the background of a military base before they go into a battle to save the earth.

In games

• In the Magic the Gathering expansion Antiquities, there is an artifact called Armageddon Clock that deals increasing damage to each player, speeding up the game's current outcome if left unattended.
• In Mage: The Awakening, the Cult of the Doomsday Clock are a cult of renegade mages who intend to destroy the world by tearing apart time itself. They use literal Doomsday Clocks that erase history within a certain area to do this.
• The RTS game Rise of Nations has an Armageddon counter that goes down when a nuclear weapon is detonated. All players will receive an Armageddon ending (i.e. both will automatically lose) if the counter reaches zero.
• In the video game Duke Nukem: Zero Hour for the Nintendo 64, the name Zero Hour refers to the Doomsday Clock.
• In the expansion pack for Command and Conquer Generals (Command & Conquer: Generals – Zero Hour), Zero Hour is a reference to the Doomsday Clock
• In the Fallout 3 trailer, a doomsday clock is seen next to the Vault Boy.

See also

• Doomsday device
• Mutual assured destruction
• Risks to civilization, humans and planet Earth
• Svalbard Global Seed Vault

External links

• The Doomsday Clock
• Timeline of the Doomsday Clock
• Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists
• Doomsday clock is ticking towards midnight, say scientists