'Doomsday Clock' Changes Today: Are We Closing in on Midnight?

Jan. 14, 2010— -- Is humanity approaching an apocalypse?

Today, a group of international scientists will move the hands of the symbolic "Doomsday Clock" for the first time in two years.

The clock, which is maintained by the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists, reflects how close civilization is to "catastrophic destruction." First set at seven minutes to midnight, the clock has been moved only 18 times since its creation in 1947.

In 2007, it was changed from seven to five minutes to midnight to reflect the threat of a "second nuclear age" and the challenges presented by global warming. The last time the clock was moved within five minutes of midnight was during the final days of the Cold War in 1984.

The Bulletin, which includes more than a dozen Nobel laureates, has not disclosed any information regarding which way the hands of the clock will move today.

"Some people may be surprised. Others will say, 'That's what I thought,'" said Lawrence M. Krauss, co-chair of the Bulletin's Board of Sponsors and a professor at Arizona State University's School of Earth and Space Exploration and its physics department.

The scientists will announce their decision at 10 a.m. EST in New York City, but anyone with an Internet connection is invited to watch the event online at TurnBacktheClock.org.

Krauss declined to elaborate on the upcoming announcement, but in a recent Scientific American column he wrote, "The clock has served for nearly 65 years as an international symbol of the level of risk that the world faces from nuclear weapons and, more recently, from all potentially globally destructive technologies."