In a lab at Michigan State University, researchers have tracked more than 60,000 generations of E. coli . While most colonies evolved similarly, one famously developed the ability to eat citrate—a "lucky" mutation that others missed, supporting Gould's idea of chance.
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 Improbable Destinies: Fate, Chance, and the Fut...
From studying how fruit flies adapt to alcohol to the domestication of Russian silver foxes, Losos illustrates that evolution can happen much faster than Darwin ever imagined—often in just a few generations. Are Humans Inevitable? In a lab at Michigan State University, researchers
Predicting how pests adapt to pesticides is crucial for our food supply. On the other side, Conway Morris argues that
If you could rewind the history of Earth—every volcanic eruption, every meteor strike, every random mutation—and press "play" again, would the world look the same? Would we still have humans, or would the planet be dominated by bipedal dinosaurs?
The platypus, for instance, remains a one-off. He argues that while nature often repeats itself, there is no guarantee it would ever "repeat" us. Why It Matters Today