Disaster Symbol: “Doomsday Clock”

The guardians of the “Doomsday Clock” say they are keeping a close watch on the Gulf War. Since 1947, the CLOCK HAS TRACKED THE WORLD’S FLIRTATION WITH NUCLEAR WAR. The clock, whose image appears on the cover of the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists, hangs on the wall of the magazine’s offices on the University of Chicago campus. The hands of the clock were last moved a year ago, after the end of the Cold War. The hands were set at 10 minutes to midnight, four minutes farther away from the zero hour denoting holocaust. Since it was devised, the hands of the clock have been as close to midnight as two minutes, and as far away as 12.