Sleeping beauties: Dormant innovations in nature and culture
Abstract
Innovations in biological evolution and in human culture – from science
to the arts – arise by processes with multiple parallels. One of them
is that many innovations originate as ‘sleeping beauties’, creative
products that are not successful when they first emerge. They become
successful only after a long period of dormancy, and then often
dramatically so. I will discuss multiple and diverse examples from
biology that range from the evolution of grasses to the emergence of new
antibiotic resistance and the origin of new genes. I will also discuss
examples from science and technology, such as the invention of the
cardiac pacemaker and the discovery of radar. These examples will
illustrate that an innovation’s innate quality may not suffice to ensure
success in the natural world or in a marketplace. They will highlight
the crucial role of the environment for an innovation’s success,
including abiotic factors and other organisms for biological
innovations, as well as social, political, and cultural factors for
cultural innovations. Taken together, these examples may also harbor
lessons for human innovators who are faced with a lack of success of
their own creative products.
Andreas Wagner is professor of the Institute of
Evolutionary Biology and Environmental Studies at the University of
Zurich in Switzerland, and External Professor at the Santa Fe Institute
for the study of Complex Systems. His main research interests revolve
around the question how biological evolution brings forth innovations –
new traits that help life survive. Wagner has authored more than 200
scientific publications in journals that include Nature, Science, and
PNAS, as well as five books, including the award-winning book “Paradoxical Life”, and “Arrival of the Fittest.”
Wagner received his Ph.D in 1995 at Yale University, where his research
won the J.S. Nicholas prize for best dissertation in his field. He has
lectured widely worldwide, and held research fellowships at several
institutions, such as the Institute for Advanced Studies in Berlin,
Germany, and the Institut des Hautes Etudes in Bures-sur-Yvette, France.
Wagner is an elected member of the EMBO, an elected fellow of the
American Association for the Advancement of Sciences, and a foreign
associate of the Austrian Academy of Sciences. An Austrian born U.S.
citizen, he lives with his wife and their son in Zurich, Switzerland.
Register here by 11 August 2021