The Doomsday Clock is Ticking Multiple Choice Quiz | History

Quiz Answer Key and Fun Facts

1. Many of the founding contributors to the "Bulletin of Atomic Scientists" (the magazine featuring the clock) had previously been members of the "project" that developed the atomic bomb during World War II. What was this project called?

Answer: Manhattan Project

The first issue, on December 10, 1945, was only two pages long and outlined the goals of the namesake "Atomic Scientists" at the University of Chicago. Those goals were

1. "To explore, clarify, and formulate the opinion of and responsibility of scientists in regards to the problems brought about by the release of nuclear energy"

and

2. "To educate the public to a full understanding of the scientific, technological, and social problems arising from the release of nuclear energy".

The Doomsday Clock eventually became a part of this second goal.

2. The clock first appeared on the cover of the June 1947 issue of The "Bulletin", where it was set at 7 minutes to midnight. A major focus of that issue was the after-effects of the atomic bombings of what two Japanese cities in August, 1945?

Answer: Hiroshima and Nagasaki

The clock on the issue's cover was designed by Martyl Langsdorf, who had been asked by her husband to design a symbol for the urgency of the growing nuclear threat. Langsdorf has joked that despite more than 60 years of art produced since that issue, she's still thought of as "the clock lady".

At the time the issue was published, the United States was the only country to have the atomic bomb, so the major focus of the "arms race" was trying to keep it a secret. An editorial in the issue (correctly) claimed that this was pointless -- the Soviets would eventually discover the bomb regardless, so we had to prepare against that eventuality now.

3. The first movement of the clock on the "Bulletin"'s cover, to 3 minutes to midnight, occurred in October 1949. What nation caused this movement by becoming the second in the world to possess the bomb?

Answer: Union of Soviet Socialist Republics

Although the clock's movement was not mentioned inside the issue, the meaning of the new time on the cover was clear: A world with multiple countries in possession of atomic weapons was one which was in danger of destroying all life on it.

Many in the United States Military and Government thought that the Soviets' possession of the bomb's secret must have come from leaks within the United States scientific community. The Atomic Scientists responded in this issue with an editorial calling for "Less Witch-Hunting and More Work".

4. The closest the Doomsday Clock has ever reached to midnight is 2 minutes. The movement to 11:58 occurred in September 1953 in response to the testing by two nations of a much more powerful bomb based on the fusion of what element?

Answer: Hydrogen

The hydrogen bomb, or H-bomb, was much more powerful than its predecessors based on fission (splitting an atom into smaller parts) instead of fusion (combining two smaller atoms into a larger one).

The increased prospects of devastating nuclear war were reflected not only in the issue's cover but also in its contents, which included articles on "Legal Measures to Mitigate the Economic Impact of Atomic Attack" and (Bomb) "Shelter in the Atomic Age".

5. Although the passage of various non-proliferation treaties moved the clock back to 12 minutes to midnight in 1972, it soon began another push towards midnight. The main impetuses behind this push were the spreading of nuclear weapons to South Asia and the invasion of what country by the Soviet Union in December 1979?

Answer: Afghanistan

The fighting in Afghanistan led both to the freezing of relations between the United States and Soviet Union (including both nations boycotting an Olympics held in the other country) and to the rise of the Taliban as the main force opposing the Soviet Forces.

Subjects covered in the first post-invasion issue of the "Bulletin" included the looming possibility of Pakistan acquiring the bomb and the growing irrationality of the nuclear powers towards accepting arms controls (the atomic scientists described the two main powers as "nucleoholics"), as well as the recent near-disaster at Three Mile Island.

6. The clock began moving back away from midnight in the late 1980s, reaching its furthest reach of 17 minutes away in 1991. One key reason for this was the willingness of the General Secretary of the Soviet Communist Party and later President of the Soviet Union to step away from the brink and let Eastern European nations escape Soviet control. Who was this?

Answer: Mikhail Gorbachev

Gorbachev's Nobel Peace Prize in 1990 cited "The greater openness he has brought about in Soviet society" and "his leading role in the peace process which today characterizes important parts of the international community."

The "Bulletin" responded to the end of the Cold War by noting that "The illusion that tens of thousands of nuclear weapons are a guarantor of national security has been stripped away," a note of optimism that now perhaps seems a bit premature.

7. Although the Cold War may have ended, the threat of nuclear weapons did not, and the clock soon began moving once more closer to midnight. The movement accelerated with the 1998 atomic tests performed by India and which of its neighbors?

Answer: Pakistan

Concerns were prompted in part because India and Pakistan have been involved in several brief skirmishes since the 1947 independence of both countries, mainly over the disputed province of Kashmir. Another source of concern was the instability of the Pakistani government, which had been the subject of several military coups in the prior decades.

As the "Bulletin" noted in an editorial accompanying the clock move: "The consequences of a possible nuclear exchange between India and Pakistan are unforeseeable. But if the barriers to the use of nuclear weapons ever fail, the physical, economic, and psychological security of every person on the planet will be threatened".

8. The 2007 move of the Clock to five minutes to midnight was based both on the continuing failure of the United States and Russia to disarm and the recent nuclear tests in what country, which was led at the time by Kim Jong-Il?

Answer: North Korea

A third major source cited by the "Bulletin" was global warming, which in its words "poses a dire threat to human civilization that is second only to nuclear weapons."

9. One place which may have been the closest the United States and Soviet Union ever came to all-out war was NOT immediately reflected in the clock's hands. What nation was the site of a namesake 1962 "crisis" involving the presence of Soviet missiles?

Answer: Cuba

The first missiles were spotted in Cuba on October 14, and by October 28 an agreement had already been reached to dismantle them. The crisis went from start to peak to denouement in less time than the gap between successive issues of the "Bulletin". Although the crisis highlighted the closeness of nuclear war, it also showed the willingness of both nations to back away from the brink, and did not lead to an immediate change in the clock.

10. The position of the clock is governed not only by the threat of nuclear war, but also by other possible sources of "catastrophic destruction" like climate change and bioterrorism. One feared mechanism for the latter of these is the spores of what bacterium, which were delivered by mail in a 2001 bioterrorism attack?

Answer: Anthrax

The "Bulletin" notes that the danger of bioterrorism has increased in recent years with the increased availability of bio-engineering tools worldwide, and notes that "developing a system to ensure the safe use of bioengineering, without impeding beneficial research and development, could pose the greatest international science and security challenge during the next 50 years."

Source: Author kevinatilusa

This quiz was reviewed by FunTrivia editor bloomsby before going online.
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The Doomsday Clock is Ticking Trivia Quiz

The Doomsday Clock was created more than 60 years ago to represent how close we are to destroying our civilization. This quiz will cover some of the history behind the clock as well as some events that have led to the clock's hands being moved.

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