DOOMSDAY CLOCK

DOOMSDAY CLOCK

Subject: Science & tech

Context : The hands of the ‘Doomsday Clock’, a visual depiction of how vulnerable the world is to a climate or nuclear catastrophe, remained at ‘100 seconds to midnight’ for the second consecutive year — the closest it has been to the symbolic annihilation of humanity.

Concept:

• The Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists, founded by Albert Einstein and students from the University of Chicago in 1945, created the ‘Doomsday Clock’ as a symbol to represent how close the world is to a possible apocalypse.
• This clock represents that the closer the minute hand is to midnight, the closer the world is to disaster.
• This clock is maintained by the members of the “Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists” since 1947.
• The scientists of this organization are attributed for the forward or backward movement of the needles of the clock.
• When scientists think that humanity is at risk, the needles of the clock are set closer to 12 O’clock and when the danger passes away, the needles are set a few minutes away from the 12 O’clock.
• For example, after the two years of nuclear attack on Hiroshima and Nagasaki by the USA; the Doomsday Clock was set at just 7 minutes to midnight i.e. 12 O’clock for the first time.