Scale

By Geoffrey West,

Book cover of Scale: The Universal Laws of Life, Growth, and Death in Organisms, Cities, and Companies

Book description

"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.…

Shepherd is reader supported. When you buy books, we may earn an affiliate commission.

Why read it?

1 author picked Scale as one of their favorite books. Why do they recommend it?

Geoffrey West does a remarkable thing in this book; he brings his training as a theoretical physicist to problems of biology, global sustainability, and the economics of our cities. He shows the power of mathematics to illuminate remarkable facts about fundamental questions like "Is there a limit to how long animals can live?", "How big can animals get?" and even "Why do cities last so long?"

I learned how the square-cube law explains why you couldn't have a real-life Godzilla, that all mammals share roughly the same amount of heartbeats, and about branching patterns in our lungs, rivers, and trees.…

Want books like Scale?

Our community of 11,000+ authors has personally recommended 31 books like Scale.

Browse books like Scale

5 book lists we think you will like!

Interested in mammals, math, and biological species?

Mammals 15 books
Math 270 books