Each year a group of top scientists updates the Doomsday Clock to see how close the world is to a man-made catastrophe.
The Bulletin of Atomic Scientists established the Clock in 1947 and it has become a universally recognised symbol. It's an indicator of the world’s vulnerability to catastrophe from nuclear weapons, climate change, and disruptive technologies in other domains.
The time set on the clock is a metaphor for how close the world is to an international disaster, with midnight symbolising the end of the world. So the closer the time is to midnight, the closer we are to destruction.
