Related papers: Red herrings and rotten fish
We propose a method for finding metabolic parameters of cells, organs and whole organisms, which is based on the earlier discovered general growth law. Based on the obtained results and analysis of available biological models, we propose a…
Our aim is to provide an overview of half-saturation constants reported in literature and to explore their consistency with body size. In many ecological models, intake of nutrients by plants and consumption of food by animals is considered…
Metabolism and evolution are closely connected: if a mutation incurs extra energetic costs for an organism, there is a baseline selective disadvantage that may or may not be compensated for by other adaptive effects. A long-standing, but to…
Production of energy (metabolism) and its distribution is vital for living organisms, both at individual level - between different functions of an organism, as well as between species of communities at different organizational levels,…
The ubiquitous $3/4$ metabolic scaling exponent, known as Kleiber's law, has long been attributed to the minimization of viscous dissipation within fractal transport networks. In this paper, we invert this standard narrative, demonstrating…
Scaling laws illuminate Nature's fundamental biological principles and guide bioinspired materials and structural designs. In simple cases they are based on the fundamental principle that all laws of nature remain unchanged (i.e.,…
In earlier work, we introduced a discrete Fibonacci-based ontogenetic model in which the metabolic scaling exponent $b(n)$ is treated as a dynamic function of an organism's developmental stage, and we estimated $b(n)$ for selected mammalian…
Allometric scaling laws, such as Kleiber's law for metabolic rate, highlight how efficiency emerges with size across living systems. The brain, with its characteristic sublinear scaling of activity, has long posed a puzzle: why do larger…
We discuss the problem of observation of natural similarity in skeletal evolution of terrestrial mammals. Analysis is given by means of testing of the power scaling laws established in long bone allometry, which describe development of…
Many complex systems obey allometric, or power, laws y=Yx^{a}. Here y is the measured value of some system attribute a, Y is a constant, and x is a stochastic variable. Remarkably, for many living systems the exponent a is limited to values…
Periodicity in population dynamics is a fundamental issue. In addition to current species-specific analyses, allometry facilitates understanding of limit cycles amongst different species. So far, body-size regressions have been derived for…
What makes living things special is how they manage matter, energy, and entropy. A general theory of organismal metabolism should therefore be quantified in these three currencies while capturing the unique way they flow between individuals…
Context. So far, theoretical explanations for body-size patterns in periodic population dynamics have received little attention. In particular, tuning and testing of allometric models on empirical data and regressions has not been carried…
Natural selection has produced an extraordinary diversity of life histories spanning many orders of magnitude in body size, vital rates, and biological times. In general, big and cold organisms grow and reproduce slowly and live long lives;…
How might systematic left-right (L/R) asymmetry of the body plan originate in multicellular animals (and plants)? Somehow, the microscopic handedness of biological molecules must be brought up to macroscopic scales. Basic symmetry…
Most organisms grow according to simple laws, which in principle can be derived from energy conservation and scaling arguments, critically dependent on the relation between the metabolic rate B of energy flow and the organism mass m.…
Researchers have found that the metabolisms of organisms appear to scale proportionally to a 3/4 power of their mass. Mathematics in this article suggests that the capacity of an isotropically radiating energy supply scales up by a 4/3…
The group of large aquatic mammals has representatives being the largest living beings on earth, surpassing the weight and size of dinosaurs. In this paper, we present some empirical evidence and a mathematical model to argue that fat…
Sleep is one of the most noticeable and widespread phenomena occurring in multicellular animals. Nevertheless, no consensus for a theory of its origins has emerged. In particular, no explicit, quantitative theory exists that elucidates or…
Accurate quantitative assessment of metabolic cost during static posture holding is a strategically important problem in biomechanics and physiology. Traditional metrics such as ``time under tension'' are fundamentally insufficient, because…