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		</div><p>Scientific progress is almost certain to bring disaster to planet Earth within the next few thousand years, according to Professor Stephen Hawking.</p>
<p>The world-renowned cosmologist predicts that as new technologies are developed, the number of threats to the human race will increase until some kind of global cataclysm is virtually inevitable.</p>
<p>In the time period before humans manage to escape to the stars, they will have to be “very careful”, he says.<br />
Hawking’s warning came during a question and answer session at the end of this year’s BBC Reith Lectures, which he delivered to an invited audience at London’s Royal Institution.</p>
<p>Scientific progress is almost certain to bring disaster to planet Earth within the next few thousand years, according to Professor Stephen Hawking.</p>
<p>The world-renowned cosmologist predicts that as new technologies are developed, the number of threats to the human race will increase until some kind of global cataclysm is virtually inevitable.</p>
<p>In the time period before humans manage to escape to the stars, they will have to be “very careful”, he says.<br />
Hawking’s warning came during a question and answer session at the end of this year’s BBC Reith Lectures, which he delivered to an invited audience at London’s Royal Institution.</p>
<figure id="attachment_84547" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-84547" style="width: 600px" class="wp-caption alignleft"><a href="http://londonglossy.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/01/image-139.jpg" rel="attachment wp-att-84547"><img src="http://londonglossy.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/01/image-139.jpg" alt="Hawking says black holes are “stranger than anything dreamed up by science fiction writers” (Nasa/Flickr)" width="600" height="541" class="size-full wp-image-84547" /></a><figcaption id="caption-attachment-84547" class="wp-caption-text">Hawking says black holes are “stranger than anything dreamed up by science fiction writers” (Nasa/Flickr)</figcaption></figure>
<p>The theme of his talk was black holes, where matter collapses under the pull of gravity to a point where the normal laws of physics break down.</p>
<p>Hawking described black holes as “stranger than anything dreamed up by science fiction writers”.<br />
His prophesy of doom came during the Q&#038;A when a member of the audience asked him: “Do you think the world will end naturally or will man destroy it first?”</p>
<p>The professor, research director at Cambridge University’s Department of Applied Mathematics and Theoretical Physics, replied: “We face a number of threats to our survival from nuclear war, catastrophic global warming, and genetically engineered viruses.</p>
<p><a href="http://londonglossy.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/01/image-140.jpg" rel="attachment wp-att-84548"><img src="http://londonglossy.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/01/image-140.jpg" alt="image" width="600" height="600" class="alignleft size-full wp-image-84548" /></a></p>
<p>The number is likely to increase in the future, with the development of new technologies, and new ways things can go wrong.</p>
<p>“Although the chance of a disaster to planet Earth in a given year may be quite low, it adds up over time, and becomes a near certainty in the next 1,000 or 10,000 years.</p>
<p>“By that time, we should have spread out into space, and to other stars, so a disaster on Earth would not mean the end of the human race.</p>
<p>“However, we will not establish self-sustaining colonies in space for at least the next hundred years, so we have to be very careful in this period.”</p>
<p>Most of the threats the human race faces come from progress in science and technology, he said.<br />
He added: “We are not going to stop making progress, or reverse it, so we have to recognise the dangers and control them. I’m an optimist, and I believe we can.”</p>
<p>On previous occasions, Hawking has highlighted the potential risk of humans being wiped out by their own artificially intelligent creations, and the dangers of contacting highly advanced aliens.</p>
<p>Hawking’s talks will be broadcast at 9am on BBC Radio 4 on January 26 and February 2.</p>
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