Unlike Johnson's previous scientific history books (e.g. The Invention of Air), this time
around Johnson doesn't do a deep-dive into the origins of a single, game-changing innovation.
Rather, in Where Good Ideas Come From, Johnston instead surveys dozens of important manmade
inventions, some dating back to antiquity, and then compares them to the grand biological
innovations that occur on a natural scale, such as the evolution of new species and ecosystems.
He then argues that the striking similarities to be found between innovation in nature and
innovation in the laboratory (or the workplace) hold important lessons for would-be inventors