I particularly liked his 1989 book Wonderful Life, which gave one a tremendous feeling for the sheer luck—good or bad—which can befall any species of animal or plant and the huge role that chance plays in evolution. As he wrote, if we could “rerun” evolution, it would no doubt turn out completely differently every time. Homo sapiens was the result of a particular combination of contingencies that ended up producing us. He called this a “glorious accident.”
