What the heck is the Doomsday Clock, and why did it just tick?

      Calm down, it's a metaphor. No one is saying we're literally 120 seconds from an apocalyptic disaster at any given moment. In fact, during the Cuban Missile Crisis, when the world was arguably perched most precariously on the precipice of nuclear war, that minute hand didn't move a bit.

      The clock (which, by the way, does not exist physically—you can't go visit it, which would probably be the most existentially distressing long weekend one could plan) is meant to remind us that global catastrophe has been just around the proverbial corner from the moment our species entered its nuclear age. It's not keeping tabs on day-to-day threats.

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