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Science 4 June 1999:
Vol. 284. no. 5420, pp. 1677 - 1679
DOI: 10.1126/science.284.5420.1677
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Reports

The Fourth Dimension of Life: Fractal Geometry and Allometric Scaling of Organisms

Geoffrey B. West, 12* James H. Brown, 23 Brian J. Enquist 23

Fractal-like networks effectively endow life with an additional fourth spatial dimension. This is the origin of quarter-power scaling that is so pervasive in biology. Organisms have evolved hierarchical branching networks that terminate in size-invariant units, such as capillaries, leaves, mitochondria, and oxidase molecules. Natural selection has tended to maximize both metabolic capacity, by maximizing the scaling of exchange surface areas, and internal efficiency, by minimizing the scaling of transport distances and times. These design principles are independent of detailed dynamics and explicit models and should apply to virtually all organisms.

1 Theoretical Division, MS B285, Los Alamos National Laboratory, Los Alamos, NM 87545, USA.
2 The Santa Fe Institute, 1399 Hyde Park Road, Santa Fe, NM 87501, USA.
3 Department of Biology, University of New Mexico, Albuquerque, NM 87131, USA.
*   To whom correspondence should be addressed. E-mail: gbw{at}lanl.gov

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Science. ISSN 0036-8075 (print), 1095-9203 (online)