Geoffrey West is a theoretical physicist whose primary interests have been in fundamental questions in physics and biology. West is a Senior Fellow at Los Alamos National Laboratory and a distinguished professor at the Sante Fe Institute, where he served as the president from 2005-2009. In 2006 he was named to Time's list of "The 100 Most Influential People in the World."
"An enchanting intellectual odyssey...also a satisfying personal
and professional memoir of a distinguished scientist whose life's
work came to be preoccupied with finding ways to break down
traditional boundaries between disciplines to solve the long-term
global challenges of sustainability.... Mr. West manages to deliver
a lot of theory and history accessibly and entertainingly...
Provocative and fascinating."--The New York Times "Scale, a grand
synthesis of topics [Geoffrey West] has studied for several
decades, makes an important and eloquent case for the significance
[of universal laws of size and growth] in an ecology of the natural
and human world -- and in understanding whether the two can fit
together." --Nature "West's insightful analysis and astute
observations patiently build an intellectual framework that is
ultimately highly rewarding, offering a new perspective on the many
scales with which nature and society challenge us...A fascinating
journey." - Science Magazine "This is the sort of big-ideas book
that comes along only every few years, the kind that changes the
conversation in boardroom, common room and dining room....A book
full of thrilling ideas." --The Sunday Times (London) "From a dean
of complexity theory comes a sharp consideration of the pace and
pattern of life in a universe of "complex adaptive systems"
...West's book is a succession of charts, graphs, and aha moments,
all deeply learned but lightly worn. By the end of the book,
readers will understand such oddments as why it is that the hearts
of all animals, from mouse to elephant, beat roughly the same
number of times across a lifespan and why the pace of life
increases so markedly as the population grows (which explains why
people walk faster, it turns out, in big cities than out in the
countryside) ...Illuminating and entertaining--heady science
written for a lay readership, bringing scaling theory and kindred
ideas to a large audience."--Kirkus Reviews "I can think of no more
exciting thinker in the world today than Geoffrey West. By bringing
a physicist's razor-sharp mind to wonderfully surprising questions
-- 'Why Aren't There Mammals the Size of Tiny Ants?' or 'Are Cities
and Companies Just Very Large Organisms?' -- West forces us to see
everything anew, from our own bodies to the mega-cities our species
increasingly chooses to inhabit. Scale is a firework display of
popular science."
--Niall Ferguson, senior fellow, the Hoover Institution "This
spectacular book on how logarithmic scaling governs everything is
packed with news--from the self-similar dynamics of cells and
ecosystems to exactly why companies always die and cities don't. I
dog-eared and marked up damn near every page."
--Stewart Brand, creator of the Whole Earth Catalog
"Geoffrey West's Scale is filled with brilliant insights. He
illuminates the laws of nature underlying everything from tiny
organisms and humans to cities and companies, and provides a
quantitative framework for decoding the deep complexity of our
interconnected world. If you want to know why companies fail, how
cities persist and what is needed to sustain our civilization in
this era of rapid innovation, read this amazing book."
--Marc Benioff, CEO of Salesforce
"When Geoffrey West, a brilliant theoretical physicist, turned his
lens to the study of life spans, biological systems or cities he
stumbled onto a game-changing universal insight about growth and
sustainability. Scale is dazzling and provocative and West proves
himself to be a compelling and entertaining writer--this is a book
we will be talking about for a long time."
--Abraham Verghese, author of Cutting for Stone
"If there were a Nobel Prize for transdisciplinary science Geoffrey
West would have won it for the work covered in Scale. This is a
book of great originality and deep importance, containing startling
insights about topics as seemingly unrelated as aging and death,
sleep, metabolism, cities, energy use, creativity, corporations,
and even the sustainability of our existence. If you are curious
about how the world really works, you must read this book."
--Bill Miller, Chairman, Emeritus, Sante Fe Institute
"Geoffrey West's Scale is a revelation. Based on his path breaking
theory and research on super-linear scaling, it provides powerful
new insights into the basic scientific laws that power our modern
society and economy, its startup companies, large corporations and
cities. The book is a must read for CEOs, technologists, mayors,
urban leaders and anyone who wants to understand the simple laws
that shape the complex, self-organizing world in which we
live."
--Richard Florida, author of The Rise of the Creative Class "This
is an important and original book, of immense scope. Geoffrey West
is a polymath, whose insights range over physics, biology and the
social sciences. He shows that the sizes, shapes and lifetimes of
living things - despite their amazing diversity -- display
surprising correlations and patterns, and that these follow from
basic physical principles. He then discovers, more surprisingly,
the emergence of similar 'scaling laws' in human societies - in our
cities, companies and social networks. These findings are presented
in clear non-technical prose, enlivened by anecdotes which convey
how these concepts arose, and thoughtful assessment of why they're
important for those planning our future. This fascinating book
deserves very wide readership."
--Martin Rees, Astronomer Royal and author of Just Six Numbers
"Each human should learn to read and write, to count, and for those
who know how to count, scalability. Scaling is the most important
yet most hidden and rarely discussed attribute--without
understanding it one cannot possibly understand the world. This
book will expand your thinking from three dimensions to four. Get
two copies, just in case you lose one."
--Nassim Nicholas Taleb, author of the Incerto "An absolutely
riveting read. Like the best detective story, West lays out the
amazing challenge of understanding why animals, cities and
companies all scale so uniformly and then skillfully lets us into
the secrets that his detective work has uncovered. This book
captures the spirit of science in the 21st century, revealing the
deep connections not just across physics and biology but society
and life. The book is a perfect balance between the big scientific
story and West's own personal narrative. We accompany the author on
his quest to face up to his own mortality while at the same time
being exposed to the theoretical discoveries that West has
pioneered in his groundbreaking work."
--Marcus du Sautoy, Simonyi Professor for the Public Understanding
of Science at Oxford University and author of The Great Unknown
"It's rare in the history of science that someone has a big, bold,
beautiful, stunningly simple new idea that also turns out to be
right. Geoffrey West had one. And Scale is its story."
--Steven Strogatz, Professor of Mathematics at Cornell University
and author of The Joy of X
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