Quanta Magazine: Help Star Trek’s Lieutenant Uhura Overcome Astronomical Odds

Consternation abounded. “Well, at least we have a small chance,” said Chekov. “But much as I would like to be optimistic, things don’t look good. We each have a 1 in 2 chance of finding our button. The chance that all eight of us will do it is just 1 in 256, or about 0.4%. Nyet, nyet! This is far worse than the old Russian roulette — it is exponential astronomical roulette.”