The nuclear attack of Hiroshima and Nagasaki clearly demonstrated the depth of the abyss, on the edge of which the world suddenly found itself. The Soviet Union, having received its missiles, could attack the United States at any time - no one dreamed of any victory in an atomic war: it was about the complete destruction of the entire planet. In this atmosphere, where fear replaced doom, the project of the Doomsday Clock was created, showing how much time remains for humanity to exist. We figured out what they mean.
Cold-blooded calculation
The creators of the first atomic bomb, under the leadership of Robert Oppenheimer himself, constantly published new data on their research in the American Bulletin of Atomic Scientists - a journal so complex that even some physicists could not understand it. In 1947, Oppenheimer invited the Bulletin of Atomic Scientists to launch a new project called the Doomsday Clock.
The essence of the project
The first thematic cover came out in the same year 1947. The hours depicted on it showed a few minutes before midnight: minutes meant the coefficient of tension in the international situation at the moment and the progress in the development of nuclear weapons. A nuclear cataclysm, according to the authors of the project, will begin when all hands freeze at the 12 o'clock position.
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Watchmakers
Of course, only highly qualified specialists make decisions about the position of the shooters. With each new control report, the board of directors of the journal gathers experts - they, at different times, were 18 Nobel Prize winners in physics. It should be understood that every swing of the minute hand is not an attempt to attract the attention of a new audience with cheap innuendo. This is indeed an indicator of the proximity of nuclear war.
What did the clock show
The minute hand originally indicated seven minutes to midnight. For 60 years, scientists have changed its position 22 times: during the Cold War, the next issue of the journal was waiting with bated breath.
Caribbean crisis
The nuclear war almost began in 1962. The Cuban Missile Crisis developed so quickly that scientists simply did not have time to react - the hands of the clock remained motionless. For 38 days the whole world watched the events of the crisis tensely, but, fortunately, nothing happened.
Happy minutes
After the Cuban missile crisis, there was some lull. The parties to the conflict feared the next clash, which had every chance of becoming the last. In 1963, while the Cold War was still in full swing, impassive scientists turned the clock back 12 minutes. The best time The Doomsday Clock showed in 1991: the USSR and the USA sign an agreement on the reduction of strategic arms.
23:58
Scientists from both countries fought over the creation of the latest thermonuclear weapons. The war seemed inevitable and victory in the "intellectual race" automatically became the guarantee of the survival of the entire nation. In 1953, the United States tested the first thermonuclear bomb - two weeks later, the Soviet Union responded with similar tests. The hands of the clock were moved to 23:58, which is still their closest position to midnight.
What time is it, can you tell me?
But we have every chance to see a new record. In 2015, expert scientists turned the arrows to 23:57 - the United States and Russia are launching programs to modernize the weapons of the nuclear triad, which in the future means a new arms race. The situation with Ukraine, according to the same experts (and we remember that the Nobel laureates can hardly be called short-sighted or stupid), can turn into a full-scale confrontation between East and West - and then the hands of the clock will move for the last time.