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Humans have spend millenia fretting about the potential end of the world, and it’s been close to 80 years since some atomic scientists introduced a new way to keep tabs on those anxieties with the “Doomsday Clock.” We’ve slowly but surely inched closer to the midnight that marks the collapse of society as we know it, and we’re now closer than ever after the latest update.
Many of the people who worked on the Manhattan Project found themselves grappling with the moral implications of their involvement in the development of the nuclear bombs that effectively ended World War II while ushering in a new era of global conflict.
That includes the researchers who joined forces with Albert Einstein in Chicago to launch what is known as the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists, which has been keeping tabs on developments in that field since releasing its first issue in 1945.
The average person may not be familiar with that particular publication, but they’re likely at least aware of an innovation that was introduced in 1947: the Doomsday Clock, which initially served as a metaphorical way to track “the level of continuous danger in which mankind lives in the nuclear age.”
The Doomsday Clock was set at seven minutes to midnight (with 12 A.M. serving as the point of no return for a global catastrophe) upon its introduction. It has been adjusted a little more than 25 times since its inception, and we’re now facing a more dire situation than ever in the wake of the latest update.
The Doomsday Clock is trending in the wrong direction after being adjusted to 85 seconds from midnight
The furthest the Doomsday Clock has ever been from midnight was 17 minutes, an adjustment that came in 1991 after the Cold War ended with the fall of the Soviet Union before the United States and Russia signed the Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty.
However, it’s crept closer and closer over the past 35 years as concerns over nuclear weapons have been supplemented by existential threats linked to other global issues, including climate change and artificial intelligence.
The proximity to midnight fell below two minutes for the first time when it was moved to 100 seconds in 2020. Russia’s decision to invade Ukraine was cited when it was reduced to 90 seconds in 2023, and we were treated to a new low when that number dropped to 89 in 2025.
On Tuesday, we got another update when the Doomsday Clock was officially set at 85 minutes to midnight, with the powers that be noting “Russia, China, the United States, and other major countries have become increasingly aggressive, adversarial, and nationalistic” while justifying the decision.
Bulletin CEO and president Alexandra Bell supplemented the assessment with a warning of her own, saying:
“Catastrophic risks are on the rise, cooperation is on the decline, and we are running out of time. Change is both necessary and possible, but the global community must demand swift action from their leaders.”
Daniel Holz, a chairman who teaches physics at the University of Chicago, cited some other specifics, adding “dangerous trends in nuclear risk, climate change, disruptive technologies like AI, and biosecurity are accompanied by another frightening development: the rise of nationalistic autocracies in countries around the world.”
This probably won’t come as a huge shock to anyone who’s been keeping tabs on the general state of the world, but it’s still less than ideal.