Improbable Planet
Improbable Planet

Author: Hugh Ross

Publisher: Baker Books

Published: 2016-09-06

Total Pages: 358

ISBN-13: 149340539X

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The Latest Scientific Discoveries Point to an Intentional Creator Most of us remember the basics from science classes about how Earth came to be the only known planet that sustains complex life. But what most people don't know is that the more thoroughly researchers investigate the history of our planet, the more astonishing the story of our existence becomes. The number and complexity of the astronomical, geological, chemical, and biological features recognized as essential to human existence have expanded explosively within the past decade. An understanding of what is required to make possible a large human population and advanced civilizations has raised profound questions about life, our purpose, and our destiny. Are we really just the result of innumerable coincidences? Or is there a more reasonable explanation? This fascinating book helps nonscientists understand the countless miracles that undergird the exquisitely fine-tuned planet we call home--as if Someone had us in mind all along.

This is Improbable Too
This is Improbable Too

Author: Marc Abrahams

Publisher: Simon and Schuster

Published: 2014-03-06

Total Pages: 392

ISBN-13: 1780743629

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The mind behind the infamous Ig Nobel Prizes presents an addictive collection of improbable research all about us – and you Marc Abrahams collects the odd, the imaginative and the brilliantly improbable. Here he turns to research on the ins and outs of the very improbable evolutionary innovation that is the human body (brain included): • What’s the best way to get a monkey to floss regularly? • How much dandruff do Pakistani soldiers have? • If you add an extra henchman to your bank-robbing gang, how much more money will you 'earn'? • How many dimples will be found on the cheeks of 28,282 Greek children? • Who is the Einstein of pork carcasses?

Mission Improbable
Mission Improbable

Author: Lee Clarke

Publisher: University of Chicago Press

Published: 1999

Total Pages: 236

ISBN-13: 9780226109428

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How does the U.S. Post Office plan to deliver mail after atomic Armageddon? How do oil industry executives intend to collect 10 million gallons of oil spilled in the Gulf of Alaska? How do regulators try to convince people that everyone can be evacuated from congested Long Island after a nuclear power plant destroys itself? Lee Clarke enters the world of managers and experts to find out how governments and corporations plan for massive disaster when they have no clue as to how to go about it. He argues that managers create plans that are "fantasy documents," rhetorical tools that are used to convince audiences that experts are in charge and that all is well. Provocative and written for a general audience, Mission Improbable makes the case that society would be safer, smarter, and fairer if organizations would admit their limitations.

Climbing Mount Improbable
Climbing Mount Improbable

Author: Richard Dawkins

Publisher: W. W. Norton & Company

Published: 1997-09-17

Total Pages: 434

ISBN-13: 0393070522

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A brilliant book celebrating improbability as the engine that drives life, by the acclaimed author of The Selfish Gene and The Blind Watchmaker. The human eye is so complex and works so precisely that surely, one might believe, its current shape and function must be the product of design. How could such an intricate object have come about by chance? Tackling this subject—in writing that the New York Times called "a masterpiece"—Richard Dawkins builds a carefully reasoned and lovingly illustrated argument for evolutionary adaptation as the mechanism for life on earth. The metaphor of Mount Improbable represents the combination of perfection and improbability that is epitomized in the seemingly "designed" complexity of living things. Dawkins skillfully guides the reader on a breathtaking journey through the mountain's passes and up its many peaks to demonstrate that following the improbable path to perfection takes time. Evocative illustrations accompany Dawkins's eloquent descriptions of extraordinary adaptations such as the teeming populations of figs, the intricate silken world of spiders, and the evolution of wings on the bodies of flightless animals. And through it all runs the thread of DNA, the molecule of life, responsible for its own destiny on an unending pilgrimage through time. Climbing Mount Improbable is a book of great impact and skill, written by the most prominent Darwinian of our age.

Dark Cheer: Cryptids Emerging - Volume Blue
Dark Cheer: Cryptids Emerging - Volume Blue

Author: Atlin Merrick

Publisher: Clan Destine Press

Published: 2021-12-13

Total Pages: 338

ISBN-13: 0645289906

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Tales for those who never outgrew goosebumps Here are stories for lovers of chupacabras and hulders, griffins and gargoyles. Here be darkly cheery tales of ancient creatures beneath still waters, in the attic, or the shadows right by the bed. Herein an autistic hiker meets a cryptid who wants her camera; a Japanese tanuki seeks his fox daughter; and two women fall in love, never mind one's a swamp monster. Here be stories of changelings, nix, and demons adopted, of hungry kraken and cryptids we'd see if only, if only we looked into treetops, behind doors, or in our own back gardens. Here there be monsters. Thank all the gods.

Improbable Destinies
Improbable Destinies

Author: Jonathan B. Losos

Publisher: Penguin

Published: 2017-08-08

Total Pages: 386

ISBN-13: 0399184937

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A major new book 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 flukes? 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's 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.

Improbable
Improbable

Author: Adam Fawer

Publisher: Harper Collins

Published: 2006-01-31

Total Pages: 468

ISBN-13: 006073678X

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From a brilliant new talent comes a riveting novel of chance, fate, and numbers, and one man's strange journey past the boundaries of the possible. David Caine inhabits a world of obsession, rich rewards, and rapid, destructive downfalls. A compulsive gambler and brilliant mathematician prone to crippling epileptic seizures, he possesses the uncanny ability to calculate odds of any hand in the blink of an eye. But one night at an underground poker club, Caine makes a costly mi scalculation, sending his life spinning out of control. Desperate, he agrees to test an experimental drug with unnerving side effects: inexplicable visions of the past, present, and future. Unsure whether he's perceiving an alternate reality or suffering a psychotic breakdown, Caine embarks on a journey that stretches beyond the possible into the world of the improbable. Gradually, he discovers the extent of his astonishing new ability -- but powerful, shadowy forces know Caine's secret. Now Caine must fight for his survival -- and his sanity . . .

Improbable Scholars
Improbable Scholars

Author: David L. Kirp

Publisher: Oxford University Press

Published: 2015

Total Pages: 271

ISBN-13: 0199391092

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In Improbable Scholars, David L. Kirp challenges the conventional wisdom about public schools and education reform in America through an in-depth look at Union City, New Jersey's high-performing urban school district. In this compelling study, Kirp reveals Union's city's revolutionary secret: running an exemplary school system doesn't demand heroics, just hard and steady work.

The Improbable Advocate
The Improbable Advocate

Author: A.T. Cullen

Publisher: Xlibris Corporation

Published: 2014-04-07

Total Pages: 305

ISBN-13: 1477116540

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A courtroom drama set in 1966 in Sydney, the novel traces the path of a murder investigation which results in a prominent politician being charged with the murder of his young lover. An inexperienced lawyer is surprisingly engaged to brief a down and out barrister by the accused's wife, and as the facts unfold, the myriad motives of the characters become enmeshed in a legal power struggle. Death, betrayal, passion and perjury combine in a complex web, where legal tactics and ethical obligations collide. BOOK REVIEW: "Cullen writes well and the action and dialogue move along at a steady and lively pace. Unlike some first-time novelists, Cullen manages to keep himself out of the narrative and allows his characters to carry the load. The author excels at creating the ethical and tactical dilemmas faced by defence attorneys. Overall, there is no doubt a jury would deliver a unanimous favourable verdict on The Improbable Advocate." -Foreword Clarion Review.

Annals of Improbable Research
Annals of Improbable Research

Author:

Publisher: Improbable Research Inc

Published: 2013

Total Pages: 33

ISBN-13: 1939385075

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The magazine about research that makes people LAUGH and then THINK. There are six new issues every year.