Improbable. A global metropolis rising from open desert simply should not exist. It should not work climatically, economically, or historically. And yet Dubai did it. At this year’s World Health Expo WHX in Dubai, one of the largest global healthcare gatherings with more than 60,000 participants, visitors entering the South Hall were greeted by a large-scale animation of synaptic vesicle fusion, the SNARE complex zippering into place guided by MUNC-18 (STXBP1). We developed this display to visualize mechanisms in genetic neurodevelopmental disorders. Watching this animation, I thought about improbability and about what makes complex systems succeed.