| Life Sciences |
| Nature |
| Science |
| Evolution |
| Biology |
| Ecology |
Summary
Summary
John Tyler Bonner, one of our most distinguished and creative biologists, here offers a completely new perspective on the role of size in biology. In his hallmark friendly style, he explores the universal impact of being the right size. By examining stories ranging from Alice in Wonderland to Gulliver's Travels, he shows that humans have always been fascinated by things big and small. Why then does size always reside on the fringes of science and never on the center stage? Why do biologists and others ponder size only when studying something else--running speed, life span, or metabolism?
Why Size Matters , a pioneering book of big ideas in a compact size, gives size its due by presenting a profound yet lucid overview of what we know about its role in the living world. Bonner argues that size really does matter--that it is the supreme and universal determinant of what any organism can be and do. For example, because tiny creatures are subject primarily to forces of cohesion and larger beasts to gravity, a fly can easily walk up a wall, something we humans cannot even begin to imagine doing.
Bonner introduces us to size through the giants and dwarfs of human, animal, and plant history and then explores questions including the physics of size as it affects biology, the evolution of size over geological time, and the role of size in the function and longevity of living things.
As this elegantly written book shows, size affects life in its every aspect. It is a universal frame from which nothing escapes.
Reviews (1)
Choice Review
From giant dinosaurs to cellular clockworks, people are astonished by the large and fascinated by the small. But as this diminutive book describes with elegant simplicity, size is far more important than mere curiosity--it "drives the form and function of everything that lives." Based on insightful analysis of a century of literature, Bonner (emer., Princeton) proves that large and small organisms are not simply scaled-up or scaled-down versions of each other. Rather, very different forces operate on the large and the small, and physical organization and physiological function vary in predictable ways according to size. Tiny organisms such as single cells and small insects are affected far more by molecular cohesion than by gravity (so flies can walk up walls); for large organisms like people and elephants, the reverse is true. Thus an organism's construction and behavior are products of its size. Bonner discusses why evolution produces larger forms of life through time, why greater size means greater complexity, and why larger organisms have slower rates of metabolism and longer life spans than smaller organisms. Drawing parallels from physics, engineering, and human (and animal) societies, Bonner vividly illustrates how something apparently so simple as size is actually so fundamentally important. ^BSumming Up: Highly recommended. Lower-level undergraduates through faculty/researchers; general readers. M. S. Grace Florida Institute of Technology
Table of Contents
| Preface | p. ix |
| Chapter 1 Introduction | p. 1 |
| Chapter 2 The Human View of Size | p. 7 |
| Chapter 3 The Physics of Size | p. 28 |
| Chapter 4 The Evolution of Size | p. 62 |
| Chapter 5 Size and the Division of Labor | p. 79 |
| Chapter 6 Size and Time | p. 116 |
| Chapter 7 Envoi | p. 147 |
| Notes | p. 153 |
| Index | p. 157 |
