Professor Stephen Hawking warned that humanity is at risk from a series of dangers of our own making.

The renowned physician is giving this year’s BBC Reith Lectures, which explore research into black holes and his warning came in answer to audience questions, as BBC states.

Hawking states that the three main dangers for humanity are nuclear war, global warming and genetically-engineered viruses adding that further progress in science and technology will create “new ways things can go wrong”.

“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 thousand or ten thousand years.” he said.

“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. 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.”

Prof Hawking’s first Reith Lecture will be broadcast on 26 January and on 2 February at 9am on BBC Radio 4.