Games of chance are often used as conceptual models of random processes in nature. For example, an exhibit on the heart in Chicago’s Museum of Science and Industry includes a kind of pinball machine. After the balls bounce somewhat randomly through this machine, they fall into bins symbolizing the different states of health of one’s heart. One can bias the outcomes for better or for worse by turning knobs related to one’s habits (smoking? eating too much?) and controllable risk factors. This device is a provocative metaphor for the mix of random and controllable processes that determine one’s health.
Similar metaphors occur in the Field Museum of Natural History’s exhibit “Life through Time.” Here we find three different kinds of toys—wheels of chance, craps, and a horse race—all used to describe the stochastic nature of the evolutionary process. One of the toys invites the museum-goer to spin a wheel to...
