Scale: The Universal Laws of Growth, Innovation, Sustainability, and the Pace of Life in Organisms, Cities, Economies, and Companies
Geoffrey West
If you like the notes, go ahead and buy the book!
Organisms
The most important idea is that complex structures does not scale linearly and not at the same pace in all aspects. Those differences can explain limits to size/growth.
Basic scaling laws
- space filling - terminal units are the same size (in given taxonomic group) - optimisation of networks (evolution)
Growth
- it is constrained by energy transport - Energy is distributed to growth and maintenance, proportion changes over time - the bigger organism, the more energy it needs to keep growing - the bigger organism, the less energy it needs to live - per size unit
Ageing
- Bigger organisms live longer because their metabolism is slower (on terminal units level) - organism age because more & more energy is needed for maintenance.
Energy transport
- 2 domains: pulsatile & none-pulsatile (blood, current etc.) - for organisms having only none-pulsatile domain is not optimal therefor there is a minimal size for mammals - branching of vessels in the circulatory system