A renowned biologist answers one of the most important questions in the life sciences

Darwinian theory explains what happens when innovations arise among living things, but it doesn't tell us how those innovations came about in the first place. As genetics pioneer Hugo de Vries put it, "Natural selection may explain the survival of the fittest, but it cannot explain the arrival of the fittest."

Andreas Wagner, an award-winning evolutionary biologist, has found that life can innovate itself far faster than scientists previously thought possible. His research shows how adaptations are not just driven by chance but rather by a set of laws that allow nature to discover new molecules and mechanisms in a fraction of the time that random variation would take.

Filled with examples of the remarkable biological creativity that surrounds us, Arrival of the Fittest breaks new ground in explaining how innovations in nature occur.