Is the world really any safer? The clock keeps ticking

On January the 14th 2010 the Doomsday clock was reset to six minutes to midnight from its previous setting of five minutes, signifying that theoretically the world is a slightly safer place. The clock established in 1947 by the scientists who developed the first atomic bomb, is designed to reflect the changing global situation and the perceived threat of a nuclear attack.
Since its inception it has been reset nineteen times, fluctuating between two minutes to midnight in 1953 when the USA and Soviet Union tested thermonuclear devices and 17 minutes to midnight as the Soviet Union dissolved.
The clock is maintained by The Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists.

Further information can be found at http://thebulletin.org/content/doomsday-clock/overview