Ryan D ear, Year 9
Two to Twelve In the year 2018, the Doomsday Clock read two to twelve. The Age of Man appeared to be drawing to a close and world peace seemed further away than ever. The Doomsday Clock symbolised the chance of a man-made global catastrophe, ever more likely as the clock drew closer to midnight. Conceived by Martyl Langsdorf and her husband, physicist Alexander Langsdorf, who worked on the Manhattan Project and helped found the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists, the Doomsday Clock was first depicted on the front cover of the Bulletin in 1947. It has featured on the Bulletin’s cover ever since. The Doomsday Clock was conceived in response to the threat to world peace brought about by the development of nuclear weapons during WW2. As the Clock draws nearer to twelve, it raises the obvious question. Is world peace ever achievable? It is now 2072, the world is not a pretty place. Human avarice triggers war after war. Nuclear weapons aid human greed, allowing nation after nation to be pulverised. The Doomsday Clock has been forgotten by most; however, a select few like me still believe that the clock has merit. My name is James Wilfred Einstein and I am the great, great, great, great grandson of Albert Einstein, one of the most the brilliant minds of all time. Like my distant relative, Albert, science is a passion of mine and time travel is a specific field I have been working in for many years. Ever since 2018, when I was 20 years old, I have dreamt that world peace would occur. Unfortunately, recent events have destroyed this dream. The Doomsday Clock now reads one to twelve, suggesting that a global catastrophe is imminent. Bursting with excitement, I pull up at my laboratory in Los Alamos, New Mexico. I enter the laboratory’s restricted area. My time machine, shaped like the Doomsday Clock, sits waiting for me. I first constructed this particular Doomsday Clock at the age of 20, in an attempt to alert people to the likelihood of a man-made global catastrophe. Now, in 2072, as a result of technological advancements in cosmic string theory, I have finally been able to create my time machine.
D arcy Wau gh - Year 7
My time machine may be the key to world peace. After much consideration, I have decided to travel back in time to December 6, 1941, four years before the first nuclear weapon was tested by the United States in New Mexico on July 16, 1945. My objective, after initially entering this time period, is to prevent the development of nuclear weapons. To facilitate this, it is necessary for me to infiltrate the top-secret Manhattan Project, located in Los Alamos, New Mexico, where nuclear technology was developed. Unlike my distant relative Albert Einstein, who aided the development of nuclear weapons by signing a letter to President Franklin Roosevelt urging the atomic bomb be built, I will attempt to do the opposite. My aim is to prevent the invention of nuclear weapons. In order to travel back in time, I will have to wind the hands of my time machine clock back to the exact time the Doomsday Clock read in 1941. However, in 1941, the Doomsday Clock hadn’t been invented! As a result, in order to pin-point the exact time, I will need to predict what the Doomsday Clock would have read in this particular year if it had been in existence. I sit in front of my time machine, praying to God, pleading for my prediction to be correct. I take a very apprehensive step towards my time machine, as this is my first foray into time travel. I grasp the minute hand, forcing it from its position at one to twelve, to four to twelve. Everything turns silent. Thirty seconds pass then an excruciating sound pierces my ear. The process seems to take hours.
A m p e rs an d 2 0 19 15
