A General Model for the Origin of Allometric Scaling Laws in Biology.¶
West, G. B., Brown, J. H., & Enquist, B. J. (1997). A General Model for the Origin of Allometric Scaling Laws in Biology. Science, 276(5309), 122-126.
Cited by¶
5 citations across 5 artifacts.
Each citation links to the sentence it supports in the citing article.
Primes¶
- Allometry and Scaling Law
- Identifying the exponent allows prediction and cross-domain transfer of design principles, as West, Brown, and Enquist (1997) demonstrated in their general model deriving allometric exponents from network geometry.
This sourceDerives biological scaling exponents (including the 3/4 metabolic law) from space-filling fractal transport networks under energy minimization, mechanistically explaining why large organisms require hierarchical distribution networks.
- Identifying the exponent allows prediction and cross-domain transfer of design principles, as West, Brown, and Enquist (1997) demonstrated in their general model deriving allometric exponents from network geometry.
- Asymptotic Behavior
- Mathematical analysis — limits, asymptotic series, dominated convergence, and the formal apparatus of approximation in the limit. Analysis of procedures — growth classes that ignore constant factors and lower-order terms to classify how cost scales with problem size. Physics — large-system limits, far-field approximations, and short-wavelength limits that retain only the dominant contribution. Economics — long-run equilibrium and steady-state analysis; average versus fixed cost as quantity grows. Biology and epidemiology — stable population growth modes, the growth-or-decay threshold in the resource-rich limit, and allometric scaling laws.
This sourceDerives empirical power-law (allometric) scaling relations between biological quantities — one possible growth class.
- Mathematical analysis — limits, asymptotic series, dominated convergence, and the formal apparatus of approximation in the limit. Analysis of procedures — growth classes that ignore constant factors and lower-order terms to classify how cost scales with problem size. Physics — large-system limits, far-field approximations, and short-wavelength limits that retain only the dominant contribution. Economics — long-run equilibrium and steady-state analysis; average versus fixed cost as quantity grows. Biology and epidemiology — stable population growth modes, the growth-or-decay threshold in the resource-rich limit, and allometric scaling laws.
- Fractal Geometry
- Scientific use: the role the fractal description plays in the analysis is named — texture classification (mammographic-tissue diagnosis, satellite-imagery land-use), allometric prediction (basal metabolic rate from body mass via the West-Brown-Enquist (1997) 3/4-power law
This sourceDerives allometric exponents (including the 3/4 metabolic law) from space-filling fractal transport networks under energy minimization.
- Scientific use: the role the fractal description plays in the analysis is named — texture classification (mammographic-tissue diagnosis, satellite-imagery land-use), allometric prediction (basal metabolic rate from body mass via the West-Brown-Enquist (1997) 3/4-power law
- Scale
- … group formalized the passage from microscopic to macroscopic physics as a systematic flow in the space of effective theories; Kolmogorov's 1941 turbulence theory identified the cascade of energy across length scales as the key to describing fully-developed turbulence; West-Brown-Enquist's 1997 allometric scaling
This sourceDerivation of biological scaling exponents (including the 3/4 metabolic law) from space-filling fractal transport networks, mechanistically explaining why small organisms can rely on diffusion while large organisms require hierarchical circulatory and respiratory systems.
- … group formalized the passage from microscopic to macroscopic physics as a systematic flow in the space of effective theories; Kolmogorov's 1941 turbulence theory identified the cascade of energy across length scales as the key to describing fully-developed turbulence; West-Brown-Enquist's 1997 allometric scaling
- Scaling and Scale Dependence
- At larger body scales, surface-area-to-volume ratios change, shifting which constraints bind, as West, Brown, and Enquist (1997) showed by deriving the underlying transport-network mechanics from first principles.
This sourceDerivation of biological scaling exponents (including the 3/4 metabolic law) from space-filling fractal transport networks, mechanistically explaining why small organisms can rely on diffusion while large organisms require hierarchical circulatory and respiratory systems.
- At larger body scales, surface-area-to-volume ratios change, shifting which constraints bind, as West, Brown, and Enquist (1997) showed by deriving the underlying transport-network mechanics from first principles.
Verification¶
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