HOUSE OVERSIGHT 025153 IMPROBABLE DESTINIES Predicting the Future of Evolution By Jonathan Losos [US — Riverhead, UK — Allen Lane, German — Hanser, Audio — Penguin RH; Manuscript; Pub Date: June 2017; 110,000 words] Evolutionary biologist and Harvard professor Jonathan Losos is widely known for his unique approach to studying evolution in realtime and using experimental means. As E.O. Wilson writes, Losos is a "world leader in research and theory of the overlapping fields of herpetology, biodiversity, and species formation." "In the last few years," Losos writes, "evolutionary biologists have come to realize that evolution can occur much more rapidly than Darwin and a century of subsequent biologists ever expected—fast enough, in fact, to observe as it occurs, even during the span of a single research grant! Now that we know that evolution can proceed rapidly, experimental studies in natural systems have begun." Losos' work on lizards has been at the forefront of the experimental evolution movement. Using small Bahamian islands as test tubes, he and his team have altered conditions and made predictions about how populations should evolve in response. And the results are resoundingly consistent: evolution is extremely predictable. Improbable Destinies is not only about what we know about evolution, but how we know what we know. Not just the technology and theories of science, but where the ideas come from—how researchers think them up, how they are honed by experiences in the field, and how much of science is the serendipitous juxtaposition of disparate ideas brought together by unexpected observations. JONATHAN LOSOS is the Monique and Philip Lehner Professor for the Study of Latin America and professor of organismic and evolutionary biology at Harvard University. He is the recipient of a number of awards, including the Theodosius Dobzhansky Prize from the Society for the Study of Evolution and the David Starr Jordan Prize from the American S