photo credit: Sophia Robinson
The end of the world is upon us, or is it? The truth is: humankind will never be able to know for sure, but the Bulletin of Atomic Scientists (BAS) has set out to answer this question with their one-of-a-kind creation, the Doomsday Clock.
The clock, while seeming like a traditional gear-driven clock, actually has a lot more drive to it. Being set once every year by the BAS, an independent nonprofit organization built with some of the most impressive minds of our time, having been founded by Albert Einstein and J. Robert Oppenheimer in 1945.
“The clock is pretty reputable in their decisions. They base their decisions off of real world events and issues, and they have a great board of reputable scientists,” sophomore Alex Kerns said.
Last year, the BAS set the 2025 clock at 89 seconds, which marked the first time the clock dropped beyond the 90-second mark. This was justified by the boom in artificial intelligence (AI) usage and enhanced political struggles, which caused uncertainty among people going into the new year.
“I believe the decision to set the doomsday clock to 89 seconds was justified due to the political climate of the world, war, and climate issues,” Kerns said.
These scientists, every year, will process the outcomes of that year into a certain time, stating a certain amount of time until “midnight”, representing the world’s doomsday, hence the name, Doomsday Clock, with the reveal of 2026’s results having occurred on Jan. 27.
Extremely pressing issues that led to the decision to set the clock by the BAS include nuclear risk, climate change, biological threats and disruptive technologies (such as artificial intelligence); however, in years past, the BAS has focused extremely on the pressing nuclear weaponry development and the apparent arms race between major countries, according to thebulletin.org.
The 2026 Doomsday Clock decision by the BAS was officially to set the clock to 85 seconds to midnight, the closest the clock has ever been to the predicted doomsday of the world, which showed a four-second drop from the previous year’s time.
“I think 85 seconds is the correct setting because the threat of wars is constantly pressing humanity, and the threat of AI advancements needs to be addressed because of the significant threat it poses to the traditional way of human life,” sophomore Landon Eralio said.
In the official 2026 Doomsday Clock statement, many reasons for this decision were cited, including a rise in nuclear weaponry conflicts between the United States and Russia, greenhouse gas production rising by 150 percent of the preindustrial levels and the enhanced risk of AI-created bioweapons that have posed significant threats as the increased stability of AI models is brought into question in 2026, according to thebulletin.org.
Overall, the public reception on this decision has been worrying, as the aforementioned reasons for the setting of the clock only scratch the iceberg for the many issues that led to the decision, with other, more current influences only adding to the drama.
“One major event I think played into this is the US withdrawal from the World Health Organization (WHO). I also think Donald Trump’s return to power affected this decision, too. Also, to add, the world is crossing an irreversible climate tipping point with the collapse of warm water coral reefs,” Kerns said.
The Doomsday Clock ticks down once more, and the issues have never been more pressing; therefore, the BAS believes change has never been more imperative, and the sooner humankind takes action, the more hope for the future it may have.
