It's been quite a year, with many wondering if 2016 was simply the worst year ever. Cambridge University professor and physicist Stephen Hawking, however, sees a much darker future ahead. "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," Hawking, who is 73 and has been living with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) for more than half a decade, told BBC News in January. "By that time, we should have spread out in space, and to other stars, so a disaster on Earth would not mean the end of the human race." But, he added, until humanity can live somewhere other than this planet, we're walking on eggshells: "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."

'We are at the most dangerous moment in the development of humanity': Stephen Hawking warns we are at risk of destroying Earth We are living through the most dangerous time in the history of the human race, according to Professor Stephen Hawking. The Cambridge University physics professor named overpopulation, climate change and diseases as just some of the threats facing our planet. He said we have developed technology that could destroy Earth, and we must'retrain' for a new world where robots have replaced many everyday jobs. We are living through the most dangerous time in the history of the human race, according to Professor Stephen Hawking. Writing in a comment article in The Guardian, Professor Hawking explained what worries him about the future of our planet.

'We are at the most dangerous moment in the development of humanity': Stephen Hawking warns we are at risk of destroying Earth We are living through the most dangerous time in the history of the human race, according to Professor Stephen Hawking. The Cambridge University physics professor named overpopulation, climate change and diseases as just some of the threats facing our planet. He said we have developed technology that could destroy Earth, and we must'retrain' for a new world where robots have replaced many everyday jobs. We are living through the most dangerous time in the history of the human race, according to Professor Stephen Hawking. Writing in a comment article in The Guardian, Professor Hawking explained what worries him about the future of our planet.