Scale

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From one of the most influential scientists of our time comes a dazzling exploration of the hidden laws governing the life cycles of everything from plants and animals to our cities. Visionary physicist Geoffrey West, a pioneer in complexity science, reveals an underlying simplicity that connects the seemingly diverse phenomena of living systems, including our bodies and businesses. His fascination with aging and mortality led him to rigorously investigate why we live as long as we do. The results were transformative, reshaping our understanding of energy use and metabolism. West discovered that, despite the vast diversity in mammal sizes, they are largely scaled versions of one another. Knowing a mammal's size allows predictions about its daily food intake, heart rate, maturation time, and lifespan. Moreover, he found that the efficiency of circulatory systems scales with weight: on a logarithmic graph, every doubling of average weight correlates with a 25% increase in efficiency and lifespan. This insight impacts our expectations regarding longevity and sleep needs. Ultimately, West's work highlights the fractal geometry of the networks that supply energy and remove waste from organisms, offering profound implications for understanding life itself.