A GROUP of 50 Nobel Prize winners has spoken out to reveal the 10 greatest threats to mankind.

In a survey, the brainboxes revealed fears that nuclear war, environmental disaster and even Facebook pose a risk to the future of our species.

2 The mushroom cloud produced by the first test of an American hydrogen bomb at Eniwetok Atoll in the South Pacific Credit: Getty Images

Times Higher Education asked the boffins about the "biggest threat to mankind".

The experts who responded are known as laureates and represent one-quarter of the living Nobel prize winners in chemistry, physics, physiology, medicine and economics - making them arguably some of the cleverest people in the world.

Just over a third (34 percent) said population rise or environmental degradation represented the gravest apocalypse risk.

In second place was nuclear war, followed by infectious disease and drug resistant bugs.

Artificial intelligence was also highlighted as a risk, as well as selfishness, inequality, terrorism and even Donald Trump.

Facebook and drugs were also named as threats, coming in at joint 10th place after both being identified by one respondent.

“Humans are very busy with the greatest climate change experiment since the ice ages," John Mather, a senior scientist in cosmology at Nasa, told Times Higher Education, which carried out the survey.

THE GREATEST THREATS TO CIVILISATION AS WE KNOW IT Fifty Nobel Prize winners were quizzed on they thought we'd be wiped out. Here's how they responded: 1) Population rise or environmental degradation: 34 per cent - 18 laureates

The human population is set to soar to 9.7 billion in 2050 and 11.2 billion in 2100. Meanwhile, scientists expect climate change to cause grave environmental disaster. 2) Nuclear war: 23 per cent - 12 laureates If Russia and the US fought a war using atomic weapons, the results would be disastrous. North Korea could also do some terrible damage if it launched nukes at its neighbours. 3) Infectious disease or drug resistance: 8 per cent - 4 laureates A new disease could appear out of nowhere and wipe out humanity. The Black Death, for instance, killed between 30 and 60 per cent of Europe's population in the 14th century. There is also a chance that familar diseases will become resistant to treatment. 4) Selfishness, dishonesty and loss of humanity: 8 per cent - 4 laureates If we all stop caring for fellow humans or start to see other races as subhuman or inferior, it could result in death on a massive scale. 5) Donald Trump and ignorant leaders: 6 per cent - 3 laureates Scientists are no fan of Donald Trump, who is famous for questioning the existence of climate change. If populism continues to surge around the world, we could get leaders who fail to recognise threats to humanity and end up condemning us to a grim fate. 6) Artificial intelligence: 4 per cent - 2 laureates Killer robots and super clever machines could one day turn on their creators. Professor Stephen Hawking and Elon Musk are two of the famous proponents of this theory. 7) Inequality: 4 percent - 2 laureates The gap between rich and poor is getting larger. If robots start to wipe out poor people's jobs whilst making a small elite extremely rich, then chaos and war is likely to follow. 8) Fundamentalism or terrorism: 6 percent - 3 laureates You might think that religion has disappeared from society, but try telling that to the Islamic extremists waging war against every other inhabitant of the world. If ISIS gets a nuke or biological weapons, its zealots will use them and kill millions. 9) Ignorance and distortion of truth: 6 per cent - 3 laureates Fake news has become a major problem on the internet and is used to manipulate people. If we don't know what's true and what's false, our society is unlikely to be able to continue indefinitely. 10) Drugs: 2 per cent - 1 laureate Drugs are becoming stronger and stronger. Could a super addictive future narcotic turn us all into mindless zombies? 10) Facebook: 2 per cent - 1 laureate Mark Zuckerberg's firm knows a truly shocking amount of information about its users. What would happen if the billionaire decided to go to the dark side? We may find out if his rumoured bid to become US President becomes a reality.

2 So-called 'strong artificial intelligence' could be the worst thing that's ever happened to humanity

Another responder who was not named said there were “several low probability but quite existential threats to humanity, including pandemics, nuclear war and artificial intelligence”

With tensions between nuke-armed North Korea and the United States reaching boiling point, it's little wonder that 23 per cent said atomic war could bring about doomsday.

One Israeli laureate was particularly concerned about “warmonger dictators”, whilst a German was nervous of “populist regimes in possession of nuclear weapons”.

Two people specifically mentioned Donald Trump as a threat to humanity.

“I don’t think science can do much about him,” one said.

However, some of the boffins feel we could be able to survive and even thrive after the apocalypse.

One of the laureates said: "The human species is so successful in making the world a better place."

Even if we do destroy the world or cause a mass extinction which makes it uninhabitable, humans could survive by jetting off into space.

“The ultimate insurance policy is to make humanity a multiplanet species," one laureate said.

"And science obviously has a big role to play in that."

Elon Musk is one of many people who is already thinking about this idea.

Musk has previously claimed Mars is "a fixer-upper of a planet" and even suggested dropping nuclear bombs on its surface to heat up the atmosphere and make it suitable for human colonisation.

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