Geoffrey West's research centres on a quest to find unifying principles and patterns connecting
everything from cells and ecosystems to cities social networks and businesses. Why do
organisms and ecosystems scale with size in a remarkably universal and systematic fashion? Is
there a maximum size of cities? Of animals and plants? What about companies? Can scale show us
how to create a more sustainable future? By applying the rigour of physics to questions of
biology visionary physicist Geoffrey West found that despite the riotous diversity in the
sizes of mammals they are all to a large degree scaled versions of each other. This speaks
to everything from how long we can expect to live to how many hours of sleep we need. He then
made the even bolder move of exploring his work's applicability to cities and to the business
world. These investigations have led to powerful insights about the elemental natural laws that
bind us together in profound ways and how all complex systems are dancing to the same simple
tune however diverse and unrelated they may seem.
