Humanity continues to move closer to catastrophe,scientists said Tuesday, Jan. 27.
The human race is at its closest point yet to destroying itself, according to the reset of the ominous but symbolic "Doomsday Clock." The metaphorical clock now stands at 85 seconds to midnight after advancing four seconds since last year's reset.
The clock is now the closest to midnight since its introduction in 1947. It is updated each year by the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists, which organizes the assessment of how close we are to a self-inflicted end of humanity.
'Failure of leadership'
Citing a worldwide "failure of leadership, the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists Science and Security Board set the Doomsday Clock at 85 seconds to midnight, the closest it has ever been to catastrophe," the Bulletin said in a statement.
"The Doomsday Clock's message cannot be clearer," Alexandra Bell, president and CEO, Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists, said. "Catastrophic risks are on the rise, cooperation is on the decline, and we are running out of time. Change is both necessary and possible, but the global community must demand swift action from their leaders."
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According to the Bulletin, "our current trajectory is unsustainable. National leaders – particularly those in the United States, Russia, and China – must take the lead in finding a path away from the brink. Citizens must insist they do so."
What is the Doomsday Clock?
The Doomsday Clock is a metaphor for how close humanity is to self-annihilation, and it serves as a call to action to find solutions to the world's most urgent, human-made existential threats to move the hands of the Clock away from midnight, according to the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists.
'Failure of leadership:'Doomsday Clock head explains current setting
What time is it on the Doomsday Clock?
The iconic clock is now at 85 seconds to midnight, the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists announced Jan. 27 via an online news conference from Washington, DC.
What did the 2025 Doomsday Clock tell us?
The clock was moved 4 seconds closer than it was a year ago, when it was set to 89 seconds to midnight.
Last year, the clock was moved ahead, because the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists' deemed the world less safe and less stable than it was a year earlier, Dan Holz, chair of the Bulletin's science and security board,told USA TODAY.
"Arms control treaties are in tatters, and there are active conflicts involving nuclear powers," he said, and misinformation, disinformation, and conspiracies are a "threat multiplier."
Is the Doomsday Clock accurate?
People have been predicting the end of the world, probably since its dawning. Most recently, theworld was supposed to have ended in September 2025.
The Doomsday Clock is different in that it is meant to be purely symbolic and does not offer a specific prediction of end times, but rather an assessment of the global dangers by some of the world's leading scientists.
The Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists was founded by University of Chicago scientists who had helped develop the first nuclear weapons for the Manhattan Project
How does the Doomsday Clock work?
Each year, the members of the Science and Security Board are asked two questions:
Is humanity safer or at greater risk this year than last year?
Is humanity safer or at greater risk compared with the 79 years the clock has been set?
Their answers set the clock for the coming year.
Why was the clock moved closer to midnight?
"The dangerous trends innuclear risk, climate change, disruptive technologies like AI, and biosecurity are accompanied by another frightening development: the rise of nationalistic autocracies in countries around the world," said Daniel Holz, professor at the University of Chicago and Science and Security board chair, Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists, in a statement.
"Our greatest challenges require international trust and cooperation, and a world splintering into 'us versus them' will leave all of humanity more vulnerable."
According to the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists, a year ago, "we warned that the world was perilously close to global disaster and that any delay in reversing course increased the probability of catastrophe."
Rather than heed this warning, the Bulletin said that Russia, China, the United States, and other major countries have instead become increasingly aggressive, adversarial, and nationalistic.
"Hard-won global understandings are collapsing, accelerating a winner-takes-all great power competition and undermining the international cooperation critical to reducing the risks of nuclear war, climate change, the misuse of biotechnology, the potential threat of artificial intelligence, and other apocalyptic dangers."
"Far too many leaders have grown complacent and indifferent, in many cases adopting rhetoric and policies that accelerate rather than mitigate these existential risks."
How did the Doomsday Clock start?
In 1945, on the anniversary of the bombing of Pearl Harbor, scientists who had worked on the Manhattan Project, which built the world's first atomic bombs, began publishing a mimeographed newsletter called The Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists.
Two years later, as those same scientists contemplated a world in which two atomic weapons had been used in Japan, they gathered to discuss the threat to humanity posed by nuclear war.
Martyl Langsdorf, an artist and the wife of Manhattan Project physicist Alexander Langsdorf Jr., came up with the idea of a clock showing just how close things were.
They called it the Doomsday Clock.
What can be done?
Even as the hands of the Doomsday Clock move closer to midnight, many actions could pull humanity back from the brink, the Bulletin said. The actions include:
The United States and Russia can resume dialogue about limiting their nuclear arsenals. All nuclear-armed states can avoid destabilizing investments in missile defense and observe the existing moratorium on explosive nuclear testing.
Through both multilateral agreements and national regulations, the international community can take all feasible steps to prevent the creation of mirror life and cooperate on meaningful measures to reduce the prospect that AI be used to create biological threats.
The United States Congress can repudiate President Donald Trump's war on renewable energy, instead providing incentives and investments that will enable rapid reduction in fossil fuel use.
The United States, Russia, and China can engage in bilateral and multilateral dialogue on meaningful guidelines regarding the incorporation of artificial intelligence in their militaries, particularly in nuclear command and control systems.
This story was updated to add a graphic showing past Doomsday Clock times
This article originally appeared on USA TODAY:Doomsday Clock 2026 announcement says Earth is 85 seconds to midnight
