Overview

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.

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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. Ulf Bjorklund was born and raised in Boden, northern Sweden. Ulf studied acting and worked internationally with a theater company for twenty years. He has also done some on-screen work. When not narrating, he composes music and enjoys photography.

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