#819 Geoffrey West - Scale; Laws of Life, Growth, and Death in Organisms, Cities, and Companies
RECORDED ON APRIL 17th 2023.
Dr. Geoffrey West is Shannan Distinguished Professor at the Santa Fe Institute. He is a theoretical physicist whose primary interests have been in fundamental questions in physics, especially those concerning the elementary particles, their interactions and cosmological implications. His long-term fascination in general scaling phenomena evolved into a highly productive collaboration on the origin of universal scaling laws that pervade biology from the molecular genomic scale up through mitochondria and cells to whole organisms and ecosystems. He is the author of several books, including Scale: The Universal Laws of Life, Growth, and Death in Organisms, Cities, and Companies.
In this episode, we focus on Scale. We talk about the study of scaling, and what we can learn from it. We talk about regularities (scaling laws), but also different constraints across different scales. We focus a lot on biological systems, and talk about metabolic rates, growth, longevity, and aging and death. We discuss if and how we could extend our lifespans. We also discuss why we need a science of cities and urbanization, with the future of humanity and the planet in mind.
Time Links:
Intro
The study of scaling
Regularities across different scales
Different constraints across different levels
Scaling in evolution by natural selection
Aging and death
Could we extend our lifespans?
Why we need a science of cities and urbanization
Is our future sustainable?
Follow Dr. West’s work!
Follow Dr. West’s work:
Faculty page: http://bit.ly/3BZaGb6
Works on ResearchGate: https://bit.ly/3GgZitx
Scale: https://bit.ly/3I14hju