What’s moved the Doomsday Clock the most?

The final countdown

The Bulletin of Atomic Scientists moved its ‘Doomsday Clock’ from 100 seconds to midnight to 90 seconds to midnight – the closest it has ever been to our apparent annihilation. How close was it during other periods of history?

Cuban missile crisis, 1962 The standoff between the US and the Soviet Union brought the world to the brink, yet it was apparently a time of optimism compared with today – a few months later the clock was moved back from 7 to 12 minutes.

Chernobyl, 1986 The world’s worst nuclear accident didn’t register on the clock: the hands were not moved for two more years, and then back from 3 minutes to 6 minutes.

End of Cold War, 1991 The clock was moved backwards from 10 to 17 minutes to midnight, the furthest it has been in 76 years.

The global crisis of 1998 The year 1998 saw a financial crisis, but a geopolitical one? Maybe it was just boredom which made the scientists shift their clock from 14 minutes to 9 minutes to midnight, the biggest shift ever towards doom.