Word: flukes
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Whether life would inevitably arise from those building blocks is still an open question. With only one example, it is impossible to say whether life on Earth was a fluke or a foregone conclusion. But most biologists cautiously lean toward the latter. Life on this planet emerged surprisingly quickly--as early as a few hundred million years after Earth formed. At the time, the planet was intensely volcanic, with the occasional leftover asteroid screaming in every few million years--yet primitive life forms persisted and flourished...
...that the likelihood of its happening again elsewhere in the cosmos is infinitesimal. This viewpoint derives from the second law of thermodynamics, which predicts that the universe is dying--slowly and inexorably degenerating toward a state of total chaos. Life bucks this trend only because it is a statistical fluke...
...Motors CEO Jack Smith told TIME's William McWhirter and a small group of automotive journalists that he expected the company to see a second consecutive year of profits in the North America. "This was a chance for him to emphasize that GM's financial recovery was not a fluke, and that he's fairly confident that he's returend the company to a much sounder operating structure than it's had in some time," says McWhirter. Smith, whose low-key management style has earned him the nickname "stealth chairman" in Detroit circles, told McWhirter that a major challenge...
...they did, 17-15, for their first victory in South Bend since 1961. When the Wildcats lost to Miami of Ohio 30-28, they looked like a fluke, but then they beat Michigan 19-13 in Ann Arbor (for the first time since '59) and Penn State 21-10. Northwestern finished the regular season at 10-1 but seemed headed for the Citrus Bowl in Orlando, Florida, until Michigan upset unbeaten Ohio State, thus making Northwestern the No. 3 team in the country and the representative of the Big Ten's 11 teams in the Rose Bowl on New Year...
Giovannucci had no explanation for the apparent benefit of strawberries, but suggested that the finding was a statistical fluke...