'Doomsday Clock' moves closer than ever to midnight

WASHINGTON –
Atomic scientists on Tuesday moved their "Doomsday Clock" closer to midnight than ever before, citing Russian nuclear threats amid its invasion of Ukraine, tensions in other world hot spots, military applications of artificial intelligence and climate change as factors underlying the risks of global catastrophe.
The Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists set the clock to 89 seconds before midnight — the theoretical point of annihilation. That is one second closer than it was set last year. The Chicago-based nonprofit created the clock in 1947 during the Cold War tensions that followed World War II to warn the public about how close humankind was to destroying the world.
"The factors shaping this year's decision — nuclear risk, climate change, the potential misuse of advances in biological science and a variety of other emerging technologies such as artificial intelligence — were not new in 2024. But we have seen insufficient progress in addressing the key challenges, and in many cases this is leading to increasingly negative and worrisome effects," said Daniel Holz, chair of the Bulletin's Science and Security Board.

Try Our AI Features

Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:

Learn with AIFact CheckingText to SpeechAI Summary

Related Articles

Nikkei Asia

19 hours ago

• Nikkei Asia

Chinese biotech is having a 'DeepSeek moment'

Analysts view a current wave of dealmaking as a watershed moment for China's biotech industry and a vital source of capital for domestic firms. CHEN XI and HAN WEI, Caixin In a resounding vote of confidence in China's biotechnology sector, leading global pharmaceutical companies are striking multibillion-dollar deals for innovative therapies developed by Chinese firms. These deals mark a pivotal point for China's role in global drug development and have sparked a capital market frenzy. In late May, Pfizer agreed to pay $1.25 billion upfront to 3SBio, a Shenyang-based biotech firm, for the rights to a promising anti-tumor drug. The agreement could eventually be worth up to $6.05 billion.

Yomiuri Shimbun

3 days ago

• Yomiuri Shimbun

Japan to Lead Charge on International Rules for Space Debris Removal; U.K., N.Z., Developing Countries Eyed as Partners

Courtesy of Astroscale Holdings Inc. A satellite operated by Astroscale Holdings Inc. captures an image of space debris created by a rocket launch. GENEVA — With the aim of creating international rules for space debris removal, the government is set to form a group of like-minded countries to discuss related challenges. Japan aims to take the initiative in establishing the rules by leveraging its technological advantage in the field. Its goal is ensuring the security of outer space and expanding the space business market. Minoru Kiuchi, state minister for science and technology policy who is in charge of space policies, will reveal the plan at a U.N. meeting to be held in Vienna on Wednesday. Along with defunct satellites, debris is also generated by rocket launches. Such debris orbits the Earth at extremely high speeds, and the amount is rapidly increasing amid a surge in space development. According to NASA, there are currently more than 20,000 pieces of debris, both small and large. The United Nations Committee on the Peaceful Uses of Outer Space compiled guidelines in 2007 due to the risk of collision between operational satellites or the International Space Station and space debris. The guidelines ask countries to design probes and satellites which do not generate space debris when launched. However, the guidelines are not legally binding, so any response by a country is voluntary. There are also no rules for the removal of existing space debris, raising concerns among companies seeking to enter the space business. In Japan, Astroscale Holdings Inc., a Tokyo-based startup, has been developing its own space debris capture technology where tools such as robotic arms on a satellite capture debris and drop it into the atmosphere where it burns up before reaching the surface. The company is a global leader in the field. The government has decided to take on establishing international rules with countries that share a common understanding of the importance of space debris removal. It plans to discuss legal issues such as the removal of space debris generated by other countries, envisioning the results to be incorporated into future U.N. guidelines. The government expects the United Kingdom and New Zealand, countries which share an understanding on developing international rules with Japan, as well as developing countries seeking to enter the space business, will be founder members of the group. Japan aims to take the initiative in establishing international rules as soon as possible, as space debris removal technology could potentially be utilized by a country to neutralize another's satellites. It also seeks to establish order in space to head off China, which aims to become the space power.

Japan Today

4 days ago

• Japan Today

Study finds planetary waves linked to wild summer weather have tripled since 1950

By SETH BORENSTEIN Climate change has tripled the frequency of atmospheric wave events linked to extreme summer weather in the last 75 years and that may explain why long-range computer forecasts keep underestimating the surge in killer heat waves, droughts and floods, a new study says. In the 1950s, Earth averaged about one extreme weather-inducing planetary wave event a summer, but now it is getting about three per summer, according to a study in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. Planetary waves are connected to 2021's deadly and unprecedented Pacific Northwest heat wave, the 2010 Russian heatwave and Pakistan flooding and the 2003 killer European heatwave, the study said. 'If you're trying to visualize the planetary waves in the northern hemisphere, the easiest way to visualize them is on the weather map to look at the waviness in the jet stream as depicted on the weather map,' said study co-author Michael Mann, a University of Pennsylvania climate scientist. Planetary waves flow across Earth all the time, but sometimes they get amplified, becoming stronger, and the jet stream gets wavier with bigger hills and valleys, Mann said. It's called quasi-resonant amplification or QRA. This essentially means the wave gets stuck for weeks on end, locked in place. As a result, some places get seemingly endless rain while others endure oppressive heat with no relief. 'A classic pattern would be like a high pressure out west (in the United States) and a low pressure back East and in summer 2018, that's exactly what we had,' Mann said. 'We had that configuration locked in place for like a month. So they (in the West) got the heat, the drought and the wildfires. We (in the East) got the excessive rainfall.' 'It's deep and it's persistent,' Mann said. 'You accumulate the rain for days on end or the ground is getting baked for days on end.' The study finds this is happening more often because of human-caused climate change, mostly from the burning of fossil fuels, specifically because the Arctic warms three to four times faster than the rest of the world. That means the temperature difference between the tropics and the Arctic is now much smaller than it used to be and that weakens the jet streams and the waves, making them more likely to get locked in place, Mann said. 'This study shines a light on yet another way human activities are disrupting the climate system that will come back to bite us all with more unprecedented and destructive summer weather events,' said Jennifer Francis, a climate scientist at the Woodwell Climate Research Center who wasn't involved in the research. 'Wave resonance does appear to be one reason for worsening summer extremes. On top of general warming and increased evaporation, it piles on an intermittent fluctuation in the jet stream that keeps weather systems from moving eastward as they normally would, making persistent heat, drought, and heavy rains more likely,' Francis said. This is different than Francis' research on the jet stream and the polar vortex that induces winter extremes, said Mann. There's also a natural connection. After an El Nino, a natural warming of the central Pacific that alters weather patterns worldwide, the next summer tends to be prone to more of these amplified QRA waves that become locked in place, Mann said. And since the summer of 2024 featured an El Nino, this summer will likely be more prone to this type of stuck jet stream, according to Mann. While scientists have long predicted that as the world warms there will be more extremes, the increase has been much higher than what was expected, especially by computer model simulations, Mann and Francis said. That's because the models 'are not capturing this one vital mechanism,' Mann said. Unless society stops pumping more greenhouse gases in the air, 'we can expect multiple factors to worsen summer extremes,' Francis said. 'Heat waves will last longer, grow larger and get hotter. Worsening droughts will destroy more agriculture.' © Copyright 2025 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without permission.