Search
Log in
  • Home

  • Categories

  • Audiobooks

  • E-books

  • For kids

  • Top lists

  • Help

  • Download app

  • Use campaign code

  • Redeem gift card

  • Try free now
  • Log in
  • Language

    🇩🇪 Deutschland

    • DE
    • EN

    🇧🇪 Belgique

    • FR
    • EN

    🇩🇰 Danmark

    • DK
    • EN

    🇪🇸 España

    • ES
    • EN

    🇫🇷 France

    • FR
    • EN

    🇳🇱 Nederland

    • NL
    • EN

    🇳🇴 Norge

    • NO
    • EN

    🇦🇹 Österreich

    • AT
    • EN

    🇨🇭 Schweiz

    • DE
    • EN

    🇫🇮 Suomi

    • FI
    • EN

    🇸🇪 Sverige

    • SE
    • EN
  1. Books
  2. Natural sciences
  3. Physics and chemistry

Read and listen for free for 14 days!

Cancel anytime

Try free now
0.0(0)

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

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.


Author:

  • Andreas Wagner

Narrator:

  • Ulf Bjorklund

Format:

  • Audiobook

Duration:

  • 7 h 41 min

Language:

English

Categories:

  • Natural sciences
  • Physics and chemistry

More by Andreas Wagner

Skip the list
  1. Zwischen Reben und Rüben : Eine Geschichte von Trauben, Wein und fünf Generationen

    Andreas Wagner

    book
  2. Der Rhein trägt Trauer : Kriminalroman

    Andreas Wagner

    book
  3. Herrgottsacker : Kriminalroman

    Andreas Wagner

    book
  4. Winzerschuld : Kriminalroman

    Andreas Wagner

    book
  5. Die Präparatorin : Kriminalroman

    Andreas Wagner

    book
  6. Abgefüllt : Ein Weinkrimi

    Andreas Wagner

    book
  7. Hochzeitswein : Ein Krimi

    Andreas Wagner

    book
  8. Schlachtfest : Ein Krimi

    Andreas Wagner

    book
  9. Vatertag : Ein Krimi

    Andreas Wagner

    book
  10. Gebrannt : Ein Wein-Krimi aus Rheinhessen

    Andreas Wagner

    book
  11. Winzersterben

    Andreas Wagner

    book

Others have also read

Skip the list
  1. Lonely Courage : The true story of the SOE heroines who fought to free Nazi-occupied France

    Rick Stroud

    audiobook
  2. Eva and Eve : A Search for My Mother's Lost Childhood and What a War Left Behind

    Julie Metz

    audiobookbook
  3. Vagabond Princess

    Ruby Lal

    audiobook
  4. Lonely Courage : The true story of the SOE heroines who fought to free Nazi-occupied France

    Rick Stroud

    book
  5. Birding Under the Influence : Cycling Across America in Search of Birds and Recovery

    Dorian Anderson

    audiobook
  6. Comma : How to restart, reclaim and reboot your PhD

    Tara Brabazon

    audiobook
  7. Floxed - I am a collateral damage from fluoroquinolone Antibiotics

    Melanie Ludwinski

    book
  8. Moondust : In Search of the Men Who Fell to Earth

    Andrew Smith

    audiobook
  9. The Prison Doctor: Women Inside

    Dr Amanda Brown

    audiobook
  10. The Lonely Letters

    Ashon T. Crawley

    audiobook
  11. Feeling Good : The New Mood Therapy

    David D. Burns

    audiobook
  12. Leadership

    Doris Kearns Goodwin

    audiobook

  • 22 books

    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.

    Read more

Help and contact


About us

  • Our story
  • Career
  • Press
  • Accessibility
  • Partner with us
  • Investor relations
  • Instagram
  • Facebook

Explore

  • Categories
  • Audiobooks
  • E-books
  • Magazines
  • For kids
  • Top lists

Popular categories

  • Crime
  • Biographies and reportage
  • Fiction
  • Feel-good and romance
  • Personal development
  • Children's books
  • True stories
  • Sleep and relaxation

Nextory

Copyright © 2025 Nextory AB

Privacy Policy · Terms · Imprint ·
Excellent4.3 out of 5