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Improbable Destinies
- Fate, Chance, and the Future of Evolution
- Narrated by: Marc Cashman
- Length: 12 hrs
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Publisher's summary
A major new work overturning our assumptions about how evolution works.
Earth's natural history is full of fascinating instances of convergence: phenomena like eyes and wings and tree-climbing lizards that have evolved independently, multiple times. But evolutionary biologists also point out many examples of contingency, cases where the tiniest change - a random mutation or an ancient butterfly sneeze - caused evolution to take a completely different course. What role does each force really play in the constantly changing natural world? Are the plants and animals that exist today, and we humans ourselves, inevitabilities or evolutionary freaks? And what does that say about life on other planets?
Jonathan Losos reveals what the latest breakthroughs in evolutionary biology can tell us about one of the greatest ongoing debates in science. He takes us around the globe to meet the researchers who are solving the deepest mysteries of life on Earth through their work in experimental evolutionary science. Losos himself is one of the leaders in this exciting new field, and he illustrates how experiments with guppies, fruit flies, bacteria, foxes, and field mice, along with his own work with anole lizards on Caribbean islands, are rewinding the tape of life to reveal just how rapid and predictable evolution can be.
Improbable Destinies will change the way we think and talk about evolution. Losos' insights into natural selection and evolutionary change have far-reaching applications for protecting ecosystems, securing our food supply, and fighting off harmful viruses and bacteria. This compelling narrative offers a new understanding of ourselves and our role in the natural world and the cosmos.
Critic reviews
"In a refreshingly accessible narrative, laced with piquant anecdotes, Losos underscores the human significance of science affecting not only how we interpret our own place on the planet but also how we envision life in distant galaxies. Wonderfully lucid; singularly engaging.” (Booklist starred review)
“A cheerful, delightfully lucid primer on evolution and the predictive possibilities within the field.” (Kirkus starred review)
Losos explains both the science and the underlying philosophy of the questions being asked in an accessible and engaging manner ... The book is as enjoyable as it is informative.” (Publishers Weekly)
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Scientific developments radically alter our understanding of the world. Whether it's technology, climate change, health research, or the latest revelations of neuroscience, physics, or psychology, science has, as Edge editor John Brockman says, "become a big story, if not the big story". In that spirit this new addition to Edge.org's fascinating series asks a powerful and provocative question: What do you consider the most interesting and important recent scientific news?
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Pete and Repeat and Re-repeat
- By Daniel L on 02-25-18
By: John Brockman
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Quakeland
- On the Road to America's Next Devastating Earthquake
- By: Kathryn Miles
- Narrated by: Bernadette Dunne
- Length: 12 hrs and 11 mins
- Unabridged
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A journey around the United States in search of the truth about the threat of earthquakes leads to spine-tingling discoveries, unnerving experts, and ultimately the kind of preparations that will actually help guide us through disasters. It's a road trip full of surprises.
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Yawn Fest
- By Mad Hen on 08-29-17
By: Kathryn Miles
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Shine Bright
- A Very Personal History of Black Women in Pop
- By: Danyel Smith
- Narrated by: Danyel Smith
- Length: 13 hrs and 36 mins
- Unabridged
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A weave of biography, criticism, and memoir, Shine Bright is Danyel Smith’s intimate history of Black women’s music as the foundational story of American pop. Smith has been writing this history for more than five years. But as a music fan, and then as an essayist, editor (Vibe, Billboard), and podcast host (Black Girl Songbook), she has been living this history since she was a latchkey kid listening to “Midnight Train to Georgia” on the family stereo.
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Ok might have been better reading the hard copy
- By cde on 06-18-22
By: Danyel Smith
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Rightful Heritage
- Franklin D. Roosevelt and the Land of America
- By: Douglas Brinkley
- Narrated by: William Dufris
- Length: 22 hrs and 49 mins
- Unabridged
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Brinkley traces FDR's love for the natural world from his youth exploring the Hudson River Valley and bird-watching. As America's president from 1933 to 1945, Roosevelt - a consummate political strategist - established hundreds of federal migratory bird refuges and spearheaded the modern endangered species movement. He brilliantly positioned his conservation goals as economic policy to combat the severe unemployment of the Great Depression.
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where to start...
- By mary S. Arnold Wells on 01-12-19
By: Douglas Brinkley
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This Land
- How Cowboys, Capitalism and Corruption are Ruining the American West
- By: Christopher Ketcham
- Narrated by: Christopher Ketcham
- Length: 15 hrs and 39 mins
- Unabridged
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Journalist Christopher Ketcham has been documenting the confluence of commercial exploitation and governmental misconduct in this region for over a decade. His revelatory book takes the listener on a journey across these last wild places, to see how capitalism is killing our great commons.
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innacurate information
- By Scott on 08-10-19
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Islands of Abandonment
- Nature Rebounding in the Post-Human Landscape
- By: Cal Flyn
- Narrated by: Cal Flyn
- Length: 9 hrs and 6 mins
- Unabridged
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Some of the only truly feral cattle in the world wander a long-abandoned island off the northernmost tip of Scotland. A variety of wildlife not seen in many lifetimes has rebounded on the irradiated grounds of Chernobyl. A lush forest supports thousands of species that are extinct or endangered everywhere else on earth in the Korean peninsula's narrow DMZ.
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Stunningly necessary
- By Mattia on 09-02-21
By: Cal Flyn
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The Good Virus
- The Amazing Story and Forgotten Promise of the Phage
- By: Tom Ireland
- Narrated by: Ben Deery
- Length: 10 hrs and 20 mins
- Unabridged
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At every moment, within our bodies and all around us, trillions of microscopic combatants are waging a war that shapes our health and life on Earth. Countless times per second, viruses known as phages attack and destroy bacteria while leaving all other life forms, including us, unscathed. Vastly outnumbering the viruses that do us harm, phages power ecosystems, drive evolutionary innovation, and harbor a remarkable capacity to heal life-threatening infections when conventional antibiotics fail. Yet most of us have never heard of them, thinking of viruses only as enemies to be feared.
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No brainer
- By Paul on 10-11-23
By: Tom Ireland
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Chasing Lakes
- Love, Science, and the Secrets of the Arctic
- By: Katey Walter Anthony
- Narrated by: Ann Richardson
- Length: 10 hrs and 4 mins
- Unabridged
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Katey Walter Anthony’s enchantment with lakes began when she was growing up amid the Sierra Nevada mountains. Today, her love for these bodies of water have taken her to the deepest reaches of Alaska and Siberia, where she is undertaking pioneering research on methane emissions. Chasing Lakes is her story.
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Both encouraging and inspiring
- By Douglas Tengdin on 02-23-23
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Under the Sky We Make
- How to Be Human in a Warming World
- By: Kimberly Nicholas PhD
- Narrated by: Kimberly Nicholas PhD
- Length: 8 hrs and 50 mins
- Unabridged
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After speaking to the international public for close to fifteen years about sustainability, climate scientist Dr. Nicholas realized that concerned people were getting the wrong message about the climate crisis. Yes, companies and governments are hugely responsible for the mess we're in. But individuals CAN effect real, significant, and lasting change to solve this problem. Nicholas explores finding purpose in a warming world, combining her scientific expertise and her lived, personal experience in a way that seems fresh and deeply urgent.
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a book everyone needs to hear
- By John on 01-08-23
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Now
- The Physics of Time - and the Ephemeral Moment That Einstein Could Not Explain
- By: Richard A. Muller
- Narrated by: Christopher Grove
- Length: 10 hrs and 3 mins
- Unabridged
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You are reading the word now right now. But what does that mean? What makes the ephemeral moment "now" so special? Its enigmatic character has bedeviled philosophers, priests, and modern-day physicists from Augustine to Einstein and beyond. Einstein showed that the flow of time is affected by both velocity and gravity, yet he despaired at his failure to explain the meaning of now. Equally puzzling: Why does time flow? Some physicists have given up trying to understand and call the flow of time an illusion.
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Physics mixed with spiritual claptrap!
- By Effe Oake on 04-03-17
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The Great Unknown
- Seven Journeys to the Frontiers of Science
- By: Marcus du Sautoy
- Narrated by: Marcus du Sautoy
- Length: 14 hrs and 41 mins
- Unabridged
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Ever since the dawn of civilization, we have been driven by a desire to know - to understand the physical world and the laws of nature. But are there limits to human knowledge? Are some things simply beyond the predictive powers of science? Or are those challenges the next big discovery waiting to happen?
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Science Museum in a Book (this is a compliment :)
- By Mike on 04-26-17
By: Marcus du Sautoy
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Being a Beast
- Adventures Across the Species Divide
- By: Charles Foster
- Narrated by: Charles Foster
- Length: 7 hrs and 27 mins
- Unabridged
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How can we ever be sure that we really know the other? To test the limits of our ability to inhabit lives that are not our own, Charles Foster set out to know the ultimate other: the nonhumans, the beasts. And to do that, he tried to be like them, choosing a badger, an otter, a fox, a deer, and a swift.
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I wanted to like it more
- By ANNH on 11-13-23
By: Charles Foster
What listeners say about Improbable Destinies
Average customer ratingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
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- Anonymous User
- 11-26-20
This is a brilliantly told account of contingency and determinism, entertaining to both laypeople and evolutionary biologists!
In this book, the author explains complex biological phenomena in a way that is digestible to anyone, regardless of whether they are just interested in biology and evolution or whether they’re a professional evolutionary biologist. The author provides a comprehensive overview of the many breakthroughs that have occurred in evolutionary biology over the past half a century.
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- Anonymous User
- 05-17-23
Fantastic read and easy to follow
Lots of information that is easy to follow. Losos does a great job going into enough detail in each study for the reader to understand the intent, result, and significance. I don't think you need a background in biology to get all the great lessons from this book. Losos does a good job keeping it fun and I think the narrator has a voice to also keep people engaged.
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- Miguel L.
- 07-31-23
Chance and Predictability
understands the chance in evolution as well as the predictability on it reading this book
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- Tanya
- 12-09-18
Interesting read
Compelling and convincing argument for convergent evolution. The examples used are thought provoking and you will find yourself discussing them at cocktail parties. The book does get a little long toward the end, and while I did still want to hear about the experiments, I did not need to have the theme pointed out over and over.
Overall, I highly recommend this book and feel that as we continue to use DNA sequencing instead of phenotype to re-build phylogenetic trees, the theme of this book will become even more relevant.
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- Anthony W. Shallin
- 07-08-18
Too much trivia.
The overall theme of this book is how individual events shape evolution. This is an interesting topic, but this book is too full of trivia to focus on the central idea. Long passages detail trips to islands to study the evolution of the local fauna, which should be interesting. Instead, we hear about who he met, what they wore and other trivia. I was unable to follow the biology because of all the extraneous details.
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8 people found this helpful
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- David
- 04-15-19
Comprehensive, probably, but a bit dry
It’s a fine book, not particularly enthralling. It reads a bit like a laundry list. We can be grateful for the narrator who really brought some life to this book. I’m a biologist, i understood the jargon, but if i weren’t, I would have been lost. Not a go to book about evolution for me. And In the end, there was no particularly profound insight.
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4 people found this helpful