Scale: The Universal Laws of Growth, Innovation, Sustainability, and the Pace of Life in Organisms, Cities, Economies, and Companies by Geoffrey West

The Universal Laws of Growth, Innovation, Sustainability, and the Pace of Life in Organisms, Cities, Economies, and Companies. 

There you go, the subtitle of the book is almost its review. Geoffrey West is a theoretical physicist. He examines the world - well the observable features thereof - and how they relate to mathematics and physics. It's fascinating. Did you know, for instance, that there is a direct relationship between our body mass and our metabolic rate, and that this relationship is in the same scale for all species of animal life - from mouse to human to elephant? You can plot it on a chart. It explains how long each variety lives, on average, and how we all have the same number of heartbeats in a lifetime.

Can you explain why it's possible to live to, perhaps 120, but not 400? Mr. West can, and does in this book.

Here's a TED talk he did explaining how cities and corporations grow, the mathematical rate and why unlimited growth isn't possible. 

It's all very amazing, and possibly less complex than you may think. I thoroughly enjoyed the meandering journey.

Don't attempt it if you're not interested in the topic - it's detailed, and I'm sure you can find good videos and written articles explaining the concepts online.

5 stars

ISBN:9781594205583

You may also enjoy The Square and the Tower by Niall Ferguson.