What is the Doomsday Clock? Why was it created?

Who designed the Doomsday Clock?

• Alexander Langsdorf Jr.

• Rachel Bronson

• Martyl Langsdorf

• Albert Einstein

What event caused the Doomsday Clock to be set to three minutes until midnight in 1949?

• Signing of the Strategic Arms Limitation Treaty

• Vietnam War

• Soviet Union nuclear testing

• US developing the hydrogen bomb

In which year did the Doomsday Clock move to 17 minutes before midnight?

• 1968

• 1972

• 1984

• 1991

What were the two main concerns cited by the Bulletin in 2017?

• Nuclear weapons and disregard for scientific expertise

• Climate change and cyber security

• Reckless language and disregard for scientific expertise

• Cold War and world conflict

What does the Doomsday Clock symbolize?

• The exact time of day

• The threat of an impending nuclear apocalypse

• The end of the Cold War

• The beginning of a new year

Though there were no direct military conflicts between the US and USSR during the Cold War, it was not a time of peace and relaxation. After both countries developed atomic weapons, their disagreements and proxy wars took on new importance because of the possibility of world-wide destruction. 

In 1947, the Doomsday Clock was created by an organization called the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists and designed by Martyle Langsdorf. The clock is designed, according to thebulletin.org, to warn the public about “how close we are to destroying our world with dangerous technologies of our own making.” Time does not move in one direction on the Doomsday Clock. Instead, the minute hand is moved closer to or further away from midnight depending on how close the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists believe the world is to possible destruction.

When the clock debuted in 1947, for example, the clock was set for 7 minutes to midnight because the United States had atomic weapons and two years later in 1949 when the USSR tested its first atomic weapons, the clock was changed to 3 minutes to midnight. At other times, the clock has been moved back. For example, in 1963 when the US and USSR signed a treaty that banned nuclear weapon testing, the clock was moved back to 12 minutes from midnight. The clock is not updated every year, but is changed whenever a significant event occurs that the scientists decide changes the world’s threat level.

What is the Doomsday Clock? Why was it created?