By Aaron Van Valen

Info from Wikipedia

Scientists today moved the minute- hand on the symbolic "Doomsday Clock'' to five minutes to midnight, to indicate growing concerns about the global nuclear threat.

The clock was set up in 1947 with a time of seven minutes to midnight, and movement of the minute-hand symbolizes growing or declining threat, with midnight representing destruction by nuclear war. For almost five years, the hand has stood where it began, at seven minutes to midnight. It has only been moved 17 times before, fluctuating between 2 and 17 minutes to midnight.

The hand was moved forward two minutes today, reflecting concerns that the world is heading toward "a second nuclear age,'' and also that climate change poses a threat to stability, said Kennette Benedict, executive director of the Bulletin of Atomic Scientists, the magazine which set up the clock in 1947.