Built to Scale
Scientists peel back the wrapper on life’s packaging principles
Tackling a
long-standing puzzle of life, theorists suggest that rules by which an
organism’s metabolism, lifespan, ecology, and other traits change with
size may be based on the architectures of networks that carry fluids in
plants and animals.
References:
Banavar, J.R.,
A. Martin, and A. Rinaldo. 1999. Size and form in efficient
transportation networks. Nature 399(May 13):130.
Enquist, B.J.,
J.H. Brown, and G.B. West. 1998. Allometric scaling of plant
energetics and population density. Nature 395(Sept. 10):163.
West, G.B., J.H.
Brown, and B.J. Enquist. 1999. A general model for the structure and
allometry of plant vascular systems. Nature 400(Aug. 12):664.
______. 1999.
The fourth dimension of life: Fractal geometry and allometric scaling
of organisms. Science 284(June 4):1677.
______. 1997. A
general model for the origin of allometric scaling laws in biology. Science
276(April 4):122.
Further Readings:
Peterson, I. 1998.
Fractal models for data traffic. Science News 154(Oct. 17):255.
______. 1997.
Fractal past, fractal future. Science News 151(March 1):S13.
______. 1996. The
shapes of cities. Science News 149(Jan. 6):8.
Weiss, P. 1998.
Local temperatures dance to global beat. Science News 154(Aug.
1):71.
Sources:
Jayanth R.
Banavar
Pennsylvania State University
Department of Physics
Center for Materials Physics
104 Davey Laboratory
University Park, PA 16802
James H. Brown
University of New Mexico
Department of Biology
Albuquerque, NM 87131
Brian J. Enquist
University of California, Santa Barbara
National Center for Ecological Analysis and Synthesis
735 State Street
Suite 300
Santa Barbara, CA 93191-3351
Paul H. Harvey
University of Oxford
Department of Zoology
South Parks Road
Oxford OX1 3PS
United Kingdom
Jan Kozlowski
Jagiellonian University
Institute of Environmental Studies
Oleandry 2A
30-063 Krakow
Poland
Amos Maritan
International School for Advanced Studies (SISSA)
Via Beirut 2-4
34014 Trieste
Italy
Karl J. Niklas
Cornell University
Department of Plant Biology
214 Plant Sciences
Ithaca, NY 14853
Andrea Rinaldo
Università di Padova
Dipartimento di Ingegneria Idraulica
Marittima e Geeotecnica
Padova
Italy
January Weiner
Jagiellonian University
Institute of Environmental Studies
Oleandry 2A
30-063 Krakow
Poland
Geoffrey B. West
Los Alamos National Laboratory
Theoretical Division
T-8, Mailstop Code B285
Los Alamos, NM 87545
William H.
Woodruff
Los Alamos National Laboratory
CST-4: Bioscience/Biotechnology
P.O. Box 1663
Los Alamos, NM 87545
From Science
News, Vol. 156, No. 16, October 16, 1999, p. 249. Copyright © 1999,
Science Service. |