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Millennium Essay

Nature 402, 583 (9 December 1999) | doi:10.1038/45086

Open Innovation Challenges

The forgotten menace

Paul Doty1

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Nuclear weapons stockpiles still represent the biggest threat to civilization.

The passage from one millennium to the next is a powerful stimulus to reflect on our most vital problems. Top of the list must be the legacy that this century bequeaths to the next and to the millennium beyond — the risk that the tens of thousands of nuclear weapons left over from the Cold War will bring an end to civilization.