Doomsday Clock Adjusted

The Washington Post reported that the Doomsday Clock had moved two minutes closer to nuclear midnight on January 17, 2007. The move represents the closest the clock has been to doomsday since the Cold War.

The Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists, which manages the clock, adjusted the time in response to North Korea's nuclear bomb test, Iran's nuclear plans, and atomic energy projects, according to the Post report. The clock, featured on the cover of the journal, is at 11:55, with midnight representing doomsday.

Mark Strauss, editor of the journal, is quoted as saying that nuclear science has changed the world, "but it hasn't managed to change the way that people think about the world, and that's why we're here." The Bulletin was started by University of Chicago scientists whose work on the first atomic bomb led them to anti-nuclear advocacy. According to the report, decisions regarding changes to the clock come from the bulletin's board of sponsors, a group of scientists and policymakers that includes 18 Nobel laureates.

In a joint news conference in Washington and London on January 17, the new clock was unveiled and issued a statement saying, "Not since the first atomic bombs were dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki has the world faced such perilous choices," the Post reported. The statement went on to say that nuclear weapons expansion, renewed emphasis on nuclear weapons in war and poor safeguards of nuclear materials "are symptomatic of a failure to solve the problems posed by the most destructive technology on Earth."

According to the report, this marks the 18^th time the hands of the clock have moved since it was first created in 1947. After the signing of the Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty in 1991, the clock was at its farthest distance ever from doomsday, when the hands were positioned at 11:43.