Our Final Hour: a Scientist's Warning: How Terror, Error, and Environmental Disaster Threaten Humankind's Future in This Century--on Earth and Beyond.

MARTIN REES

It used to be that our greatest threats were natural disasters such as earthquakes, volcanoes, and asteroid impacts. Now, Rees argues, our future may be more imperiled by our own scientific advances. A science communicator and England's Astronomer Royale, Rees considers the ultimate challenge for humanity in this century to be to tame our inventiveness before it proves our undoing. He fears that advances in microbiology and genetics, combined with their rapid dissemination on the Internet, could be a hazardous mix. Biological terrorism is one example, but Rees asserts that malicious intent isn't a prerequisite for danger. Rogue nanomachines could replicate catastrophically or experiments within particle accelerators could get out of hand and erode all the atoms of Earth. Rees considers how science is advancing at an exponential rate and urges us to consider the consequences. Basic, 2003, 228 p., hardcover, $25.00.