If you’ve been feeling a little down as the “Doomsday Clock” ticks ever closer to midnight, you’re not alone.
A new study in The Bulletin of Atomic Scientists (BAS) links the clock’s progress to negative shifts in mortality and mental health. The study, the first of its kind to connect the timepiece metaphor for global catastrophe to mental and physical health, indicates higher rates of death related to Alzheimer’s disease, suicide, unintentional injuries, and alcohol and drug abuse as the clock inches closer to midnight.
Edging Closer to Midnight
The BAS first set the clock in 1947, with an eye to potential annihilation by global nuclear warfare. As the times have changed, other threats to humanity have been added to the mix the organization uses to tell us how close we may be to an existential “Time’s Up.” Those new risks include climate change, disruptive technology and cyber risks, and political volatility. In January 2025, the BAS declared that we are now 89 seconds from midnight.
Read More: How to Improve Your Mental Health
"The world has not made sufficient progress on existential risks threatening all of humanity," said Daniel Holz, the BAS chair, when announcing the new time. "Every second of delay in reversing course increases the probability of global disaster."
It’s hard not to be a “Negative Nelly” when the Doomsday Clock draws ever nearer to indicating an apocalypse. The new study shows that existential stress may play a role in mental and physical health. Scientists will often argue that “correlation does not equal cause and effect”. However, the study’s authors are trying to measure how what they call “social determinants of health” impact peoples’ general sense of well-being.
Implications for Health
“This study represents a first step, with the inherent limitations thereof, but it suggests a bridge between the fate of the world, our psychology, and our health,” Samuel Justin Sinclair, a researcher at Brigham and Women's Hospital (BWH) and co-author of the paper, said in a press release. “This may sound intuitive, but it’s something that no one has looked at before. We hope it opens the door to further discussion.”
The authors argue for more research examining how social and political interactions impact health — basically to see whether the "vibe" truly presents threats to our overall sense of well-being.
Their study isn’t all bad news, though. The research also showed lower mortality risks from some forms of cancer and HIV and lower mortality rates for malignant neoplasms, HIV, and diabetes mellitus.
Read More: The Latest Time on the Doomsday Clock and Why You Should Care
Article Sources
Our writers at Discovermagazine.com use peer-reviewed studies and high-quality sources for our articles, and our editors review for scientific accuracy and editorial standards. Review the sources used below for this article:
The Bulletin of Atomic Scientists. Apocalypse now? Mortality and mental health correlates of the Doomsday Clock
Discover Magazine. The Doomsday Clock in Fiction and Reality
Discover Magazine. The Latest Time on the Doomsday Clock and Why You Should Care
Before joining Discover Magazine, Paul Smaglik spent over 20 years as a science journalist, specializing in U.S. life science policy and global scientific career issues. He began his career in newspapers, but switched to scientific magazines. His work has appeared in publications including Science News, Science, Nature, and Scientific American.
