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Abstracts :
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Geoffrey West
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Informations about Geoffrey West |
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Searching for Simplicity in Complexity; Growth, Innovation, Economies of Scale, and the Pace of Life from Cells to Cities
Life is the most complex phenomenon in the Universe manifesting an extraordinary diversity of form and function over an enormous scale. Yet, many of its most fundamental and complex phenomena scale with size in a surprisingly simple fashion. For example, metabolic rate scales as the 3/4-power of mass over 27 orders of magnitude from complex molecules up to the largest multicellular organisms. Similarly, time-scales, such as lifespans and growth-rates, increase with exponents which are typically simple powers of 1/4. It will be shown how these quarter power scaling laws follow from fundamental universal principles leading to a general quantitative, predictive theory that captures the essential features of many diverse biological systems. Examples will include animal and plant vascular systems, growth, cancer, aging, sleep and mortality.
These ideas will be extended to discuss and speculate about equally complex phenomena, namely social organisations: to what extent are social organisations an extension of biology? Is a city, for example, "just" a very large organism? Analogous scaling laws point to general principles of organization common to all cities. Analogues to metabolic rate and behavioral times in cities scale counter to their behaviour in biological systems: in particular, the pace of life in cities increases with size. This has dramatic implications for growth and development: innovation and wealth creation that fuel social systems, if left unchecked, potentially sow the seeds for their inevitable collapse. The presentation will at a non-technical level. |
