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

Beyond the ivory tower, Losos’s insights have vital real-world applications:

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. Improbable Destinies: Fate, Chance, and the Fut...

On the other side, Conway Morris argues that natural selection is so powerful that it inevitably finds the same "solutions" to environmental problems. If an environment needs a fast swimmer, it will eventually produce something like a shark, a dolphin, or an ichthyosaur—independently. Testing the "Improbable" in the Real World Beyond the ivory tower, Losos’s insights have vital

If evolution is predictable on Earth, it might be predictable on other planets, giving us a hint of what extraterrestrial life might look like. Final Thoughts Beyond the ivory tower