Doomsday clock

[Kastor]

Doomsday Clock moves two minutes closer to midnight
Jan. 17 2007,Dragana Kovacevic , DiscoveryChannel.ca



Scientists pushed the minute hand on the symbolic 'Doomsday Clock' closer to midnight, from seven minutes to the hour, to five this week.

The idea behind the clock is that when the hands strike twelve, the beginning of the end is upon us - and probably by our doing.

Scientists adjusted the clock for the first time in five years, in response to what they say is a worsening nuclear environment.

The clock - designed by the scientific elite at the Bulletin for Atomic Scientists - hangs at the University of Chicago and is a symbol of the mortal peril humanity faces.

The willingness and engagement of an increasing number of countries in nuclear proliferation has prompted the group to make the change towards what they call a possible nuclear renaissance.

Global warming is also for the first time a factor in the shift, partly because it has renewed interest in nuclear energy.

The clock was first designed by scientists who worked on - and later renounced - the controversial Manhattan Project, and the development of the atomic bomb.

First turned on in 1947, it was initially set to seven minutes to midnight.

It was closest to the hour in 1953 at two minutes to twelve, when the Cold War between the United States and Soviet Union had the two testing hydrogen bombs at the same time.

It was at its furthest in 1991, at 17 minutes to the hour, following the two nations' signing of the Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty.

Some of the cited concerns today revolve around the nuclear ambitions of Iran and North Korea, Russia's possession of unsecured nuclear materials, threats posed by terrorists as well as the massive number of nuclear weapons held by the U.S.