Sleeping Beauties: The Mystery of Dormant Innovations in Nature and Culture

Written by Andreas Wagner

Narrated by Ulf Bjorklund

Life innovates constantly, producing perfectly adapted species-but there's a catch.

Many animals and plants eke out seemingly unremarkable lives. Passive, constrained, modest, threatened. Then, in a blink of evolutionary time, they flourish spectacularly. Once we start to look, these 'sleeping beauties' crop up everywhere. But why?

Looking at the book of life, from apex predators to keystone crops, and informed by his own cutting-edge experiments, renowned scientist Andreas Wagner demonstrates that innovations can come frequently and cheaply to nature, well before they are needed. We have found prehistoric bacteria that harbor the remarkable ability to fight off twenty-first-century antibiotics. And human history fits the pattern too, as life-changing technologies are invented only to be forgotten, languishing in the shadows before they finally take off.

In probing the mysteries of these sleeping beauties, Wagner reveals a crucial part of nature's rich and strange tapestry.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Tantor Media, Inc
• Release date: May 23, 2023
• ISBN: 9798350822182

Andreas Wagner

Andreas Wagner is a professor and chairman at the Department of Evolutionary Biology and Environmental Studies at the University of Zurich. He is the author of four books on evolutionary innovation, including Life Finds a Way, which is also published by Oneworld. He lives in Zurich.

Reviews for Sleeping Beauties

[knaan · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

Wow.
I give this book one hundred out of one hundred points! And with standing ovations!
Andreas Wagner shows that creativity is everywhere, really everywhere, in nature and in our existence.
My favorite quote: every creative product is just a ticket to life's grand lottery. (You'd probably only understand this after you've listened to the book. So just listen to it!)