Catastrophe Conference

Over the last few days, the Future of Humanity Institute in Oxford hosted the

Global Catastrophic Risks Conference
(17-20 July, 2008)

On their program you find peacefully aligned talks about how "financial losses associated to catastrophes can be mitigated by insurance"(Peter Taylor), "ecological catastrophes that cause widespread local and global extinctions of species" (Professor Christopher Wills ), Climate Change (Dr Dave Frame), "Hazards from Comets and Asteroids" (William Napier), "Catastrophic Nuclear Terrorism" (William Potter and Gary Ackerman), with physicists reporting on the end of the world. There is Prof Fred Adams from the University of Michigan who talks about

"The Long Term Future of our Dying Universe"

From the abstract:

"After accounting for the demise of the galaxy, we consider the evaporation of expelled degenerate objects (planets, white dwarfs, and neutron stars). The evolution and eventual sublimation of these objects is dictated by the decay of their constituent nucleons. After white dwarfs and neutron stars have disappeared, the black holes are the brightest astrophysical objects, slowly losing their mass as they emit Hawking radiation. After the largest black holes have evaporated, the universe slowly slides into darkness."

And Dr Michelangelo Mangano from CERN on the "Expected and unexpected in the exploration of the fundamental laws of nature". From the abstract "The discussions over the possible outcomes of new high-energy experiments will be used as a case study to address this topic, covering both the scientific and sociological aspects of the issue." Mangano is author of the previously mentioned CERN safety report.