https://nautil.us/the-world-is-full-of-sleeping-beauties-304237/
"Grass, mammals, penicillin, John Keats. None was successful right away.
Grasses struggled along in patches here and there for some 45 million years
before, rather quickly, unfurling, almost blanketlike, across the continents.
Mammals, as we know, were furry blurs underground and underfoot for more than
100 million years before ascending to prominence—and then dominance. The
life-saving drug penicillin was abandoned by its discoverer and lay mostly
neglected for more than a decade before it was ever administered to a single
patient. And now-revered Romantic poet John Keats sold just a couple hundred
volumes of his poetry in his life—only entering the canon decades after his
death.
In fact, many lasting innovations, whether biological or cultural, were no
overnight success. Instead, they emerged and managed to persist, in the
shadows, until the time was just right for them to step into the limelight.
You may have produced something wonderful but it’s just not the right place
and time.
So argues biologist Andreas Wagner in his new book,
Sleeping Beauties: The
Mystery of Dormant Innovations in Nature and Culture. Wagner, a professor at
the Institute of Evolutionary Biology and Environmental Studies at the
University of Zurich, and a professor at the Santa Fe Institute, came to
biology not as a boy fascinated by newts or lichens, but as a teenager
enchanted by the prospect of uncovering principles that guide the natural
world. In the lab, Wagner has pioneered models of gene networks. In the
author’s chair, he has probed the puzzling natures of innovation and
creativity.
He said he originally came to the concept of “sleeping beauties” from
conversations with artists and with scientists, many of whom are often
frustrated by their lack of success. “I think every scientist has written a
paper that he or she thought was going to rock the world,” he says. “And then
once the paper comes out, nobody’s interested in it. So there are two readings
of that. First: The paper just sucks and it’s not important. Or: It’s waiting
to be discovered.” And in the lab, he and his colleagues have found evidence of
these “latent innovations” emerging in the DNA of living organisms. So, for the
wide-ranging book, he says, “I wanted to put all of this together.”
I recently spoke with Wagner about what we can learn from delayed success. In
conversation he is simultaneously exacting and expansive. We delved into the
tangled trajectory of life and how we should think twice about our perceived
failures. Who knows? We may be the next Keats."
Via
Future Crunch:
<
https://futurecrunch.com/good-news-homicide-education-sierra-leone-solar-china/>
Cheers,
*** Xanni ***
--
mailto:xanni@xanadu.net Andrew Pam
http://xanadu.com.au/ Chief Scientist, Xanadu
https://glasswings.com.au/ Partner, Glass Wings
https://sericyb.com.au/ Manager, Serious Cybernetics
