About Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists (BAS):
- It is an independent, nonprofit organization that sought to warn the public about the danger of nuclear weapons.
- The bulletin was founded by a group called the Atomic Scientists of Chicago in September 1945 at the University of Chicago.
- Its founding members and sponsors were scientists who had contributed to the development of the first atomic bombs as part of the Manhattan Project, including physicists Albert Einstein, J. Robert Oppenheimer, and Eugene Rabinowitch.
- It focuses on three main areas: nuclear risk, climate change, and disruptive technologies.
- It pursues its goals through media products, starting in 1945 as a mimeographed newsletter, then a magazine, and now as an online publication.
Key Facts about Doomsday Clock:
- To convey the particular peril posed by nuclear weapons, the BAS devised the Doomsday Clock in 1947.
- It is a symbolic clock adopted by atomic scientists to show how close human beings are considered to be to a global catastrophe, with midnight standing for annihilation, or “doomsday.”
- It is recognized as a universal symbol of threats to humanity from a variety of sources: nuclear and other weapons of mass destruction, climate change, and disruptive technologies.
- The Doomsday Clock appeared on the Bulletin’s first cover when it transitioned from a newsletter to a magazine.
- Its original setting was seven minutes to midnight. Since its invention in 1947, the clock has been reset 27 times.
- In 2026 the clock was set to 85 seconds before midnight, the closest it has ever been to doomsday.
