The Doomsday Clock is always ticking down. Between climate change, technological advances, new diseases, and the ever present threat of nuclear war … it often feels like we’re close to the end of civilization. How close? According to the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists … we’re 100 seconds to midnight. The closest we’ve ever been.

But what, exactly, is the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists and this bizarre clock they oversee? Why, when we imagine the end of the world, do we see a clock ticking down to midnight. Where did this visual metaphor come from? Here to give us the history of the clock and explain how it has permeated our consciousness is Robert K. Elder.

Elder is the Chief Digital Editor of the Bulletin and a journalist who has authored many fine books. His latest is The Doomsday Clock at 75.

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