Margins
Chance book cover
Chance
2015
First Published
3.46
Average Rating
272
Number of Pages

For you to be here today reading this requires a mind-boggling series of lucky breaks, starting with the Big Bang and ending in your own conception. So it's not surprising that we persist in thinking that we're in with a chance, whether we're playing the lottery or working out the likelihood of extra-terrestrial life. In Chance, a (not entirely) random selection of the New Scientist's sharpest minds provide fascinating insights into luck, randomness, risk and probability. From the secrets of coincidence to placing the perfect bet, the science of random number generation to the surprisingly haphazard decisions of criminal juries, it will explore these, and many other, tantalising questions. Following on from the bestselling Nothing and Question Everything, this book will open your eyes to the weird and wonderful world of chance - and help you see when some things, in fact, aren't random at all.

Avg Rating
3.46
Number of Ratings
325
5 STARS
14%
4 STARS
33%
3 STARS
40%
2 STARS
10%
1 STARS
2%
goodreads

Author

Michael Brooks
Michael Brooks
Author · 8 books
Michael Brooks, who holds a PhD in quantum physics, is an author, journalist, and broadcaster. A consultant at New Scientist, he also writes regularly for New Statesman. Brooks is the author of At The Edge of Uncertainty, The Secret Anarchy of Science, and the bestselling non-fiction title 13 Things That Don’t Make Sense. His writing has appeared in The Guardian, The Independent, The Observer, THE, The Philadelphia Inquirer, and many magazines. He has lectured at, amongst others, NYU, the American Museum of Natural History, and the University of Cambridge.
548 Market St PMB 65688, San Francisco California 94104-5401 USA
© 2025 Paratext Inc. All rights reserved