Improbable Destinies: Fate, Chance, And The Fut... May 2026

The book centers on a legendary scientific disagreement between two titans of biology:

Understanding how bacteria predictably evolve resistance can help us fight "superbugs". Improbable Destinies: Fate, Chance, and the Fut...

While these were once purely philosophical thought experiments, Losos shows that we can now test them using . He takes readers from laboratory flasks to remote islands to meet the scientists "rewinding the tape" in real-time: The book centers on a legendary scientific disagreement

Losos’s own pioneering work shows that nearly identical lizard species have evolved independently on different islands to fill specific niches (like tree trunks or grassy twigs), a stunning example of predictable convergence. The most provocative chapter of Improbable Destinies asks

The most provocative chapter of Improbable Destinies asks whether human-like intelligence was bound to happen. While many adaptations (like eyes or wings) appear repeatedly in nature, Losos points out that many others are unique flukes.