Biotechnology, Nanotechnology Biotechnology and nanotechnology are exciting new technologies which offer great commercial rewards, but unfortunately also offer bioweapons applications. It doesn't take an operation like Saddam Hussein's to kill the world. It takes only one lab somewhere. The rising power of one individual with technology is reaching mammoth proportions. Biotechnology and nanotechnology are threats to mankind as a species, and also to the biosphere of Earth.
Nuclear technology is trivial in comparison.
Biotechnology is advancing so that we can map the molecular structure of viruses and modify them, e.g., to make vaccines. However, this same technology will give us the ability to change these viruses, in manmade, technological ways. This gives us the technical power to make a virus which would kill every human on Earth, e.g., a variation of the AIDS or Ebola virus which spreads as easily as the common cold, reproduces much faster, and is more effective in killing its host. There are many species that have come into existence on this planet and which are suspected of having become extinct due to a natural virus outbreak within the species. A manmade virus could be far worse than a naturally occuring one.