Seven ‘Til

Scientists and Nobel Laureates have set the Doomsday Clock back by one minute because of positive arms control measures leaving humanity seven minutes from destruction. “The world has inched further away from doom and nuclear disaster, said a group of respected scientists that includes 19 Nobel Laureates. The symbolic Doomsday Clock has been moved back a minute, reflecting the Bulletin of Atomic Scientists’ more optimistic view of the world’s chances of avoiding catastrophic threats such as nuclear attacks. The clock is now set at six minutes to midnight, with midnight representing a nuclear apocalypse, according to the group, which is based in Chicago, Illinois. ‘We are poised to bend the arc of history toward a world free of nuclear weapons. For the first time since atomic bombs were dropped in 1945, leaders of nuclear weapons states are cooperating to vastly reduce their arsenals and secure all nuclear bomb-making material,’ the scientists said in a statement Thursday. The Doomsday Clock was created in 1947 and had been adjusted only 18 times before Thursday, the group said.”