'What is the Doomsday Clock and How Does it Calculate World End?'

Atomic scientists have reset the so-called Doomsday Clock to 90 seconds to midnight, meaning they think they world is closer to ending than ever before. But what is the Doomsday Clock?

It’s a design the scientists use to tell the public how close they think we are to destroying the planet. Nuclear technology and climate science experts discuss world events each year, and work out where to move clock’s hand - the closer they place them to midnight, the closer - they think - we are to the threat of annihilation.

Albert Einstien was among the scientists who created the clock in 1947. When it first started ticking, it sat at seven minutes to midnight. But just two years later, when the USSR tested its first atomic bomb, the hand were moved to three minutes to midnight.

In 1991 - as the Cold War cooled down - the clock was set at its furthest time from catastrophe - 17 minutes to midnight.

In the years since, the clock’s hand has creeped closer to midnight. In 2020, geopolitical tensions and the climate crisis pushed the hand to just 100 seconds to midnight.

But in 2023, the panel warn that humanity’s existence is at greater risk than ever before, largely as a result of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

Report by Sophie Braybrook @sophiebraybrook3101

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