London [AP]- Humanity must colonise space or perish in the next 1 000 years, the scientist Stephen Hawking warned on Tuesday.

In an interview with the Daily Telegraph newspaper, Hawking said biology posed a greater threat to the human race than nuclear weapons.

"Nuclear weapons need large facilities but genetic engineering can be done in a small lab. You can't regulate every lab in the world," Hawking told the newspaper.

"The danger is that, either by accident or design, we create a virus that destroys us."

Hawking, a professor of mathematics at Cambridge University and author of the physics best seller A Brief History of Time, said people "will have to learn to live in space," in order to survive.

"I don't think the human race will survive the next thousand years, unless we spread into space," he said. "There are too many accidents that can befall life on a single planet."

Hawking, 59, nonetheless said he remained optimistic about the future of humanity.

"One has to live on the basis that life will continue and I think there is a good chance that it will," he said. "But we should recognise the dangers."

•Story originally published by:
Sapa - Oct 16.01

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