Video URL
https://pirsa.org/16050031Growth dynamics and scaling laws across levels of biological organization.
APA
Hatton, I. (2016). Growth dynamics and scaling laws across levels of biological organization.. Perimeter Institute for Theoretical Physics. https://pirsa.org/16050031
MLA
Hatton, Ian. Growth dynamics and scaling laws across levels of biological organization.. Perimeter Institute for Theoretical Physics, May. 16, 2016, https://pirsa.org/16050031
BibTex
@misc{ scivideos_PIRSA:16050031, doi = {10.48660/16050031}, url = {https://pirsa.org/16050031}, author = {Hatton, Ian}, keywords = {Other Physics}, language = {en}, title = {Growth dynamics and scaling laws across levels of biological organization.}, publisher = {Perimeter Institute for Theoretical Physics}, year = {2016}, month = {may}, note = {PIRSA:16050031 see, \url{https://scivideos.org/index.php/pirsa/16050031}} }
Ian Hatton McGill University
Abstract
Recent findings on quantitative growth patterns have revealed striking generalities across the tree of life, and recurring over distinct levels of organization. Growth-mass relationships in 1) individual growth to maturity, 2) population reproduction, 3) insect colony enlargement and 4) community production across wholeecosystems of very different types, often follow highly robust near ¾ scaling laws. These patterns represent some of the most general relations in biology, but the reasons they are so strangely similar across levels of organization remains a mystery. The dynamics of these distinct levels are connected, yet their scaling can be shown to arise independently, and free of system-specific properties. Numerous experiments in prebiotic chemistry have shown that minimal self-replicating systems that undergo template-directed synthesis, typically show reaction orders (ie. growth-mass exponents) between ½ and 1. I will outline how modifications to these simplified reaction schemes can yield growth-mass exponents near ¾, which may offer insight into dynamical connections across hierarchical systems.