Once a year the members who author the Bulletin of Atomic Scientists update the Doomsday Clock. It was created shortly after the end of WWII by Albert Einstein and the scientists who built the first atomic weapons.
In 1947 it debuted at seven minutes to midnight, the mythical zero hour when mankind destroys itself. Each year the hands of the clock move relative to global threats, stepping back in 1991 and the collapse of the Soviet Union to 17 minutes from midnight.
The threat of atomic annihilation has been the greatest agent of forward movement, but this year the scientists acknowledged that the danger of a global pandemic has pushed back against any progress that may otherwise have been made.
The clock is unchanged from last year.
It remains at 100 seconds from midnight.
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