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

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“This is science writing as wonder and as inspiration.” —The Wall Street Journal
Wall Street Journal
From one of the most influential scientists of our time, a dazzling exploration of the hidden laws that govern the life cycle of everything from plants and animals to the cities we live in.
Visionary physicist Geoffrey West is a pioneer in the field of complexity science, the science of emergent systems and networks. The term “complexity” can be misleading, however, because what makes West’s discoveries so beautiful is that he has found an underlying simplicity that unites the seemingly complex and diverse phenomena of living systems, including our bodies, our cities and our businesses.
Fascinated by aging and mortality, West applied the rigor of a physicist to the biological question of why we live as long as we do and no longer. The result was astonishing, and changed science: West found that despite the riotous diversity in mammals, they are all, to a large degree, scaled versions of each other. If you know the size of a mammal, you can use scaling laws to learn everything from how much food it eats per day, what its heart-rate is, how long it will take to mature, its lifespan, and so on. Furthermore, the efficiency of the mammal’s circulatory systems scales up precisely based on weight: if you compare a mouse, a human and an elephant on a logarithmic graph, you find with every doubling of average weight, a species gets 25% more efficient—and lives 25% longer. Fundamentally, he has proven, the issue has to do with the fractal geometry of the networks that supply energy and remove waste from the organism’s body.
West’s work has been game-changing for biologists, but then he made the even bolder move of exploring his work’s applicability. Cities, too, are constellations of networks and laws of scalability relate with eerie precision to them. Recently, West has applied his revolutionary work to the business world. This investigation has led to powerful insights into why some companies thrive while others fail. The implications of these discoveries are far-reaching, and are just beginning to be explored. Scale is a thrilling scientific adventure story about the elemental natural laws that bind us together in simple but profound ways. Through the brilliant mind of Geoffrey West, we can envision how cities, companies and biological life alike are dancing to the same simple, powerful tune.
Publisher ‏ : ‎ Penguin Books
Publication date ‏ : ‎ May 15, 2018
Edition ‏ : ‎ Reprint
Language ‏ : ‎ English
Print length ‏ : ‎ 496 pages
ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 014311090X
ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-0143110903
Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 2.31 pounds
Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 1.1 x 5.4 x 8.4 inches
Best Sellers Rank: #31,011 in Books (See Top 100 in Books) #3 in Molecular Biology (Books) #3 in Biophysics (Books) #10 in Probability & Statistics (Books)
Customer Reviews: 4.4 4.4 out of 5 stars (1,455) var dpAcrHasRegisteredArcLinkClickAction; P.when(‘A’, ‘ready’).execute(function(A) { if (dpAcrHasRegisteredArcLinkClickAction !== true) { dpAcrHasRegisteredArcLinkClickAction = true; A.declarative( ‘acrLink-click-metrics’, ‘click’, { “allowLinkDefault”: true }, function (event) { if (window.ue) { ue.count(“acrLinkClickCount”, (ue.count(“acrLinkClickCount”) || 0) + 1); } } ); } }); P.when(‘A’, ‘cf’).execute(function(A) { A.declarative(‘acrStarsLink-click-metrics’, ‘click’, { “allowLinkDefault” : true }, function(event){ if(window.ue) { ue.count(“acrStarsLinkWithPopoverClickCount”, (ue.count(“acrStarsLinkWithPopoverClickCount”) || 0) + 1); } }); });
Customers find the book highly informative, with one review noting how it brings together fundamental biological knowledge. Moreover, they appreciate its thought-provoking nature, with one customer describing it as an interesting window into a new way of thinking. However, the writing quality and readability receive mixed feedback, with some finding it well-written while others consider it hard to read. Additionally, the book’s complexity and wordiness are also mixed aspects, with some finding it verbose and repetitive.