Scale

The Universal Laws of Life and Death in Organisms, Cities and Companies

By: Geoffrey West

Write A Review

eBook | 18 May 2017

At a Glance

ePUB
320 Pages

Edition Type
Digital original

eBook

$12.99

or 4 interest-free payments of $3.25 with

Instant Digital Delivery to your Kobo Reader App

**'**Magisterial . . . you reach the end of this profound, revealing book rewarded. West shows how scientific method helps to peel back the hidden reality of our world' MATTHEW SYED, THE TIMES

Geoffrey West's research centres on a quest to find unifying principles and patterns connecting everything, from cells and ecosystems to cities, social networks and businesses.

Why do organisms and ecosystems scale with size in a remarkably universal and systematic fashion?

Is there a maximum size of cities? Of animals and plants? What about companies?

Can scale show us how to create a more sustainable future?

By applying the rigour of physics to questions of biology, visionary physicist Geoffrey West found that despite the riotous diversity in the sizes of mammals, they are all, to a large degree, scaled versions of each other. This speaks to everything from how long we can expect to live to how many hours of sleep we need. He then made the even bolder move of exploring his work's applicability to cities and to the business world. These investigations have led to powerful insights about the elemental natural laws that bind us together in profound ways, and how all complex systems are dancing to the same simple tune, however diverse and unrelated they may seem.

Industry Reviews

'An enchanting intellectual odyssey . . . also a satisfying personal and professional memoir of a distinguished scientist whose life's work came to be preoccupied with finding ways to break down traditional boundaries between disciplines to solve the long-term global challenges of sustainability . . . Mr West manages to deliver a lot of theory and history accessibly and entertainingly . . . Provocative and fascinating'