📹 From Elephants to Metropolises

Why We Die, but Cities Don’t.

Introduction:

This essay examines the principle of scaling to understand why organisms age in the way they do, while cities are more resilient. The essay draws on Geoffrey West's book titled Scale, and Kleiber’s law to explore the distinct behaviors of biological and urban systems when they are scaled.

Chapters:

Chapter 1: “Three million mouse makes an elephant” is wrong. 00:33

Chapter 2: Dinner with Reverend Malthus. 05:22

Chapter 3: How not to Die in a City. 08:26

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References and Notes:

Thomas Malthus Image Credit: Portrait of Thomas Robert Malthus by John Linnell: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Thomas_Robert_Malthus_Wellcome_L0069037_-crop.jpg

Geoffrey West, Scale: The Universal Laws of Life, Growth, and Death in Organisms, Cities, and Companies

Morgan et al. BMC Evolutionary Biology 2013, 13:251

Kleiber M (1947). “Body size and metabolic rate.” Physiological Reviews 27: 511–541

Bettencourt et al. PNAS April 24, 2007, 104 (17) 7301-7306