This part of the book tells how West and his colleagues found that as the body mass of mammalian species doubles, its energetic efficiency increases by 25%, and its lifespan becomes 25% longer.

The first part of the book is my favorite because the evidence supporting how scaling law applies to living organisms is best established. Geoffrey West, a theoretical physicist and former president of the Santa Fe Institute, has written a fascinating book where he applies mathematical scaling law to complex systems, starting with living organisms and moving on to companies and cities. Scale: The Universal Laws of Growth, Innovation, Sustainability, and the Pace of Life in Organisms, Cities, Economies, and Companies by Geoffrey West ( Penguin Press, 2017 Amazon US / Amazon UK) This book accompanies the BBC One TV series.įorces of Nature was a Sunday Times Bestseller. The many splendiferous photographs and illustrations in the book, along with the overall sense of wonder captured in the writing more than atone for the complex concepts and mathematical formulae that might scare some readers. Each of four chapters - Symmetry, Motion, Elements and Color - start with a simple question that sparks a more comprehensive exploration that fuses history with our current understanding of the science involved, and shows how these seemingly simple questions can be explained by the four fundamental forces. As the reader learns, these forces that embody the universe also shape our world - its colors, structures, and natural events. In this book, writer and particle physicist Brian Cox, explains by exploring the four fundamental forces of nature: gravitational, electromagnetic, strong nuclear and weak nuclear. Why do honeybees build hexagonal cells in their hives? Why are living organisms symmetrical? Why does the sky turn red at sunset? Why is every snowflake different? You’ve probably pondered some of these questions yourself.

The Telescope in the Ice by Mark Bowen