Physicist and author Stephen Hawking asserted in a recent interview that aggression will be the downfall of mankind. 

Hawking made the declaration in an exclusive interview with a contest winner from California, according to The Independent. 

"The human failing I would most like to correct is aggression," he allegedly told Adaeze Uyanwah.

"It may have had survival advantage in caveman days, to get more food, territory or a partner with whom to reproduce, but now it threatens to destroy us all."

Uyanwah, 24, and Hawking talked and toured London's Science Museum as part of a VisitLondon.com promotion. 

Instead of aggression, human beings should have more empathy, Hawking said, because it "brings us together in a peaceful loving state."

The 73-year-old also emphasised the importance of space travel in his conversation with the contest winner. 

"I believe that the long-term future of the human race must be space and that it represents an important life insurance for our future survival, as it could prevent the disappearance of humanity by colonising other planets," Hawking said, according to the Cambridge News.

Putting a man on the moon, he insisted, "changed the future of the human race in ways that we don't yet understand."

Uyanwah was in awe after her experience with the scientist. 

"It's incredible to think that decades from now, when my grandchildren are learning Stephen Hawking's theories in science class, I'll be able to tell them I had a personal meeting with him and heard his views first hand," she said, according to The Daily Mail.

"It's something I'll never forget."