Access
To read this story in full you will need to login or make a payment (see right).
Brief Communications
Nature 438, 754 (8 December 2005) | doi:10.1038/438754a; Published online 7 December 2005
Open Innovation Challenges
-
Single-cell Analysis Platform
This Challenge is looking for novel approaches to analyzing changes at a single-cell level. This is...
-
Direct Molecular Detection of Proteins and Nucleic Acids
This Challenge is looking for novel approaches to protein and nucleic acid detection. This is an Id...
- More Challenges
- Powered by:
nature jobs
Chair, Department of Informatic Medicine and Personalized Health
- University of Missouri-Kansas City
- Kansas City, Missouri, USA
Fellowships
- Julius-Maximilians Universitat Wurzburg
- Wurzburg Germany
Astrophysics: Is a doomsday catastrophe likely?
Abstract
The risk of a doomsday scenario in which high-energy physics experiments trigger the destruction of the Earth has been estimated to be minuscule1. But this may give a false sense of security: the fact that the Earth has survived for so long does not necessarily mean that such disasters are unlikely, because observers are, by definition, in places that have avoided destruction. Here we derive a new upper bound of one per billion years (99.9% confidence level) for the exogenous terminal-catastrophe rate that is free of such selection bias, using calculations based on the relatively late formation time of Earth.
To read this story in full you will need to login or make a payment (see right).
MORE ARTICLES LIKE THIS
These links to content published by NPG are automatically generated.
