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.
