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APPARENTLY, NOT ONLY GOD ROLLS THE DICE - SO DOES LIFE
A Series of Fortunate Events by Sean B. Carroll
written by Elisavet Dionysia Chiou
Have you ever thought about how much of your existence is just pure luck? Not the kind of luck where you find money on the ground, but the deep, universe-shaping kind that decides who survives, who thrives, and who never gets the chance. If you’ve never considered it, A Series of Unfortunate Events by Sean B. Carroll will ensure you never stop.
This book isn’t just about evolution—it’s about the wild, unpredictable, and utterly fascinating role of chance in shaping life on Earth. We often think of natural selection as a strict, orderly process, where only the strongest survive. But what if I told you that the most defining moments in Earth’s history weren’t based on strength or intelligence, but on sheer, unpredictable accidents? Carroll takes us on a journey through the five mass extinctions that wiped out nearly all life, the tiny genetic mutations, caused by even more “negligible” quantum tunneling events on the angstrom scale, that led to groundbreaking evolutionary shifts, and even the strange coincidences that made human civilization possible.
Did you know that if a single asteroid had landed a few minutes earlier or later, the age of dinosaurs might have never ended? That a random mutation in a single cell gave rise to all multicellular life? That, inside every one of us there is at least one B-cell with the right “antibodies” on its surface, not only for every pathogen that exists, but also for every single strain of every single pathogen that will EVER exist, as a result of the random combination of just (about) 90 genes? Or, that the very reason we exist today can be traced back to a handful of bizarre, near-impossible twists of fate? Carroll’s book is filled with these mind-blowing facts that will completely reshape how you see life's past, present, and future.
Carroll’s storytelling is electrifying. He turns complex scientific ideas into thrilling narratives, making you feel like watching history unfold in real time. His examples are unforgettable, his explanations crystal clear, and by the time you finish, you’ll be looking at everything-your own life included-as part of a grand, unpredictable evolutionary lottery.
As a species, we attribute our fallacious thinking to our brains’ adaptation to seek patterns in everyday life. Without this, I wouldn’t be writing this, and you wouldn’t be reading it. So, denying the power of mere luck in our existence is natural, and having an existential crisis after reading this book is understandable.
So, if you’re ready to be utterly shocked, fascinated, and maybe even slightly terrified by how much of life is ruled by chance, this book is an absolute must-read. Science has never been this thrilling. Don’t leave it to chance—grab your copy now.
*"Whenever someone tells me ‘everything happens for a reason,’ I push them down the stairs and ask, ‘So what was the reason for that?’"
-Stephen Colbert