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Scale : the universal laws of growth, innovation, sustainability, and the pace of life in organisms, cities, economies, and companies / Geoffrey West
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Scale : the universal laws of growth, innovation, sustainability, and the pace of life in organisms, cities, economies, and companies / Geoffrey West

by Geoffrey B. West

This study explores universal scaling laws and mathematical principles governing the life cycles of biological organisms, cities, and businesses. It analyses how fractal networks determine energy efficiency and growth across complex systems.

Accession 14692 ISBN 9781594205583 Publisher Penguin
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Scale : the universal laws of growth, innovation, sustainability, and the pace of life in organisms, cities, economies, and companies / Geoffrey West spine
Scale : the universal laws of growth, innovation, sustainability, and the pace of life in organisms, cities, economies, and companies / Geoffrey West cover
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Scale : the universal laws of growth, innovation, sustainability, and the pace of life in organisms, cities, economies, and companies / Geoffrey West live spine
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Scale : the universal laws of growth, innovation, sustainability, and the pace of life in organisms, cities, economies, and companies / Geoffrey West spine Scale : the universal laws of growth, innovation, sustainability, and the pace of life in organisms, cities, economies, and companies / Geoffrey West live spine
Scale : the universal laws of growth, innovation, sustainability, and the pace of life in organisms, cities, economies, and companies / Geoffrey West cover
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TAGS
Curated Derived
Animals Architecture Cities Complexity Culture Economics Geography Growth Human Evolution Life Sciences Science Simplicity Social Sciences
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on_shelf
True
position_updated_at
2026-06-01 16:33
orientation
vertical
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spine_text
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M:N3:6 4 vertical
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Identity

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Scale : the universal laws of growth, innovation, sustainability, and the pace of life in organisms, cities, economies, and companies / Geoffrey West
vernon_id
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14692
vernon_slug
scale-the-universal-laws-of-growth-innovation-sustainability-and-the-pace-of-life-in-organisms-cities-economies-and-companies-geoffrey-west

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2017
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brief_description
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. 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... -- blurb

Subjects & people

authors→ author (initial fill only)
Geoffrey B. West
tags→ tags
Human settlements, Human ecology, Ecology, Environmental sciences, Science, Life sciences, Social sciences, Civilisation, Economics, Evolution (Biology), Biology, City planning, Planning, Organisation, Human evolution, Economic development, Economic policy, Physiology, Developmental biology, Growth, Cities and towns -- Study and teaching, Sustainability
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