ABSTRACT
Life is the most complex phenomenon in the Universe manifesting an extraordinary diversity of form and function over an enormous scale. Yet, as Georey West shows us, many of its most fundamental and complex phenomena scale with size in a surprisingly simple fashion. He explains in simple terms, using examples from the study of animal and plant vascular systems, growth, cancer, aging, sleep and mortality, how these so-called “quarter power scaling laws” follow from fundamental universal principles leading to a general quantitative, predictive theory that captures the essential features of many diverse biological systems. West extend these ideas to discuss and speculate about equally complex phenomena, namely social organizations : asking to what extent are social organizations an extension of biology ? Is a city, for example, “just” a very large organism ? He argues that the analogous “social” scaling laws his work has uncovered point to general principles of organization common to all cities. However the analogues to metabolic rate and behavioral times in cities scale counter to their behavior in biological systems : in particular, the pace of life in cities increases with size. is has dramatic implications for growth and development : innovation and wealth creation can fuel social systems, but if le unchecked, can potentially sow the seeds for their inevitable collapse.3
