Ch. 0 Alea jacta est -- ch. 1 Improbable world : -- Finding patterns -- The patterns of science -- The randomness confusion -- Weighing up risk -- From classical to chaos -- ch. 2 More random than random : -- The success factor -- Random success -- Superstition conjures causation -- A natural cycle -- ch. 3 A measure for luck : -- The inhuman economist -- Gambling with chance -- ch. 4 It's all in the stats : -- What's it worth? -- The law of large numbers -- Distributing the outcomes -- ch. 5 The clockwork universe : -- The universe according to Newton -- No need for that hypothesis -- ch. 6 Just three bodies : -- Relativity becomes special -- The eternal triangle -- ch. 7 Chaos! : -- The unpredictables -- The next bestseller -- ch. 8 Statistical substance : -- Sample selection -- Blinded by science -- All in the context -- Statistics aren't fair -- The rare event -- ch. 9 What does random mean? : -- Generating randomness -- Cherry picking -- The unbalanced target. How significant is significant? -- Probability on trial -- The sources of randomness -- ch. 10 Really random : -- Into the quantum atom -- The light revolution -- A case of uncertainty -- ch. 11 No quantum cats : -- In the quantum tunnel -- Dead or alive? -- Interpreting the quantum -- ch. 12 Improbable world redux : -- The quantum mechanical window -- Einstein's hidden truths -- Quantum secrecy -- Computing with quanta -- Beam me up -- ch. 13 Follow the heat : -- Laying down the law -- The law of change -- Quantifying disorder -- Entropy plays dice -- ch. 14 Maxwell's demon : -- Unmixing the mixture -- Uniqueness is disorder -- The mystery of time -- The clockwork runs down -- ch. 15 Crystal balls and winning goats : -- It's in the stars -- Future vision -- A simulated world -- Cars and goats -- Born on a Tuesday -- ch. 16 The Reverend Bayes and the golden retriever : -- The case of the informative mug -- Good guesses are better than nothing -- Mr Bayes's oracle. Ch. 17 Free will? : -- My lucky numbers -- I had no choice -- A spanner in the clockwork -- The random deity.

As troubling as we pattern-seeking humans may find it, modern science has repeatedly shown us that randomness is the underlying heartbeat of nature. In Dice World, acclaimed science writer Brian Clegg takes readers on an incredible trip around our random universe, uncovering the truths and lies behind probability and statistics, explaining how chaotic intervention is behind every great success in business, and demonstrating the possibilities quantum mechanics has given us for creating unbreakable ciphers and undergoing teleportation. He explores how the 'clockwork universe' imagined by Newton, in which everything could be predicted given enough data, was disproved bit by bit, to be supplanted by chaos theory and quantum physics. Clegg reveals a world in which not only is accurate forecasting often impossible but probability is the only way for us to understand the fundamental nature of things. Forget the clockwork universe. Welcome to Dice World, a unique portrait of a startlingly complex cosmos, from the bizarre microscopic world of the quantum to the unfathomable mechanics of planetary movements, where very little is as it seems