Biology | Genetics
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Chapter one
Uncertainty in Nature
Matter | Physics
A Universe Made of Tiny, Random Chunks
The space-time that makes up our universe is inherently uncertain.
Numbers | Math
The Deepest Uncertainty
When a hypothesis is neither true nor false.
Matter | Physics
The Rise of the Uncertain
Uncertainty in physics has gone from black sheep to overachiever.
Chapter two
This Uncertain Life
Ideas | Philosophy
Parenthood, the Great Moral Gamble
The decision to have a child is more ethically uncertain than you might realize.
Culture | Fiction
Giving Up Paradise
Lies, high heels, and piety.
Numbers | Information Theory
The Coin Toss and the Love Triangle
There are two flavors of uncertainty in our lives. Math helps with both.
Culture | Psychology
Fooled By Your Own Brain
Don’t be so certain your senses are telling you the truth.
Ideas | Philosophy
The Hidden God
One man’s path to knowing less about God.
Chapter three
Uncertainty for Fun & Profit
Culture | Neuroscience
Composing Your Thoughts
Music that upsets expectations is what makes your gray matter sing.
Culture | Art
When Photographers Are Neuroscientists
Artists who manipulate photos capture the ambiguity—and beauty—of vision itself.
Numbers | Technology
Joys of Noise
The reliability of some technologies depends on just the right amount of randomness.
Culture | Economics
How to Insure Against a Rainy Day
Never mind tornadoes—companies now seek shelter from daily weather.
Culture | Fiction
Know When to Hold ’Em
The world is your casino. But bettors beware—the house always wins.
Chapter four
Balancing Uncertainty
Ideas | Philosophy
Why It’s Good To Be Wrong
Nothing obstructs access to the truth like a belief in absolute truthfulness.
Ideas | Philosophy
Ingenious: David Deutsch
The truth will set us free, so long as we remember to challenge it.
Biology | Genetics
My Family’s Decade in Genetic Limbo
Personal DNA testing may yet deliver on its promise.
Numbers | Economics
Taming the Unfriendly Skies
How one airline wrestles with the uncertainty of weather.
Ideas | Philosophy
Certainly Not!
Good science requires cultivating doubt and finding pleasure in mystery.
Culture | Psychology
Learning to Fly
Coping with anxiety in an uncertain world.
Related Facts So Romantic
“Reality provides us with facts so romantic that imagination itself could add nothing to them.” —Jules Verne
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Culture
When Pigs Fly, Crayfish Whistle, and It Snows Red Snowflakes
What do you say when faced with something so unlikely, so improbable, that you simply cannot imagine it ever happening? Perhaps you’ll admit your neighbor was right about who owns the…
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Matter
When a Planet Is Not Really a Planet at All
As astronomers point their telescopes up at the sky to learn about the cosmos, they tend to push those devices’ abilities to their limits. The edge of what we can measure is, of course,…
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Matter
The Best Evidence for Dark Matter & the Uncertainty Therein
If I told you that I was 99.81 percent certain I had made a big discovery, you might suggest it was time to break out the champagne. If I said the discovery resolved one of the biggest…
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Ideas
The Remarkable Philosophy of the TV Show “House”
In his essay for “Uncertainty,” the second issue of Nautilus, David Deutsch explains why you can never be entirely sure that a thought is undoubtedly correct. Despite that, he says…
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