Doomsday Clock Set at Closest Ever to Midnight Amidst Global Concerns
The Doomsday Clock, a symbolic representation of humanity's proximity to global catastrophe, was set to 85 seconds to midnight, the closest it has ever been to midnight in its nearly 80-year history, according to the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists Science and Security Board (SABS). The announcement, made on January 28, 2026, highlighted the escalating threats posed by nuclear weapons, disruptive technologies like artificial intelligence, biosecurity concerns, and the ongoing climate crisis, Wired reported.
The Doomsday Clock was created in 1947, during the Cold War between the United States and the Soviet Union, as a symbolic representation of how close humanity is to the destruction of the world.
The announcement comes as the Trump administration secretly rewrote nuclear safety rules, according to NPR.
Meanwhile, artificial intelligence is driving unprecedented investment for massive data centers and an energy supply that can support its huge computational appetite, MIT Technology Review reported. One potential source of electricity for these facilities is next-generation nuclear power plants, which could be cheaper to construct and safer to operate than their predecessors.
In other news, Secretary of State Marco Rubio appeared before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee to explain President Trump's policy toward Venezuela following the U.S. military operation that ousted then-President Nicolás Maduro, at the Capitol in Washington, D.C., Wednesday, NPR reported. Rubio told senators Venezuela transition won't be fast or easy.
Life Biosciences, a small Boston startup founded by Harvard professor and life-extension evangelist David Sinclair, has won FDA approval to proceed with the first targeted attempt at age reversal in human volunteers, MIT Technology Review reported. The company plans to try to treat eye disease with a radical rejuvenation concept called reprogramming that has recently attracted hundreds of millions in investment for Silicon Valley firms like Altos Labs, New Limit, and Retro Biosciences, backed by many of the biggest names in tech.
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