Why Size Matters: From Bacteria to Blue Whales

by John Tyler Bonner

Book Overview

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...

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0691128502
• ISBN13: 9780691128504
• Release Date: October 2006
• Publisher: Princeton University Press
• Length: 176 Pages
• Weight: 0.71 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.7" x 5.5" x 7.0"

Customer Reviews

Great stuff!

I thoroughly enjoyed this book. It feels like you're hanging out with an old friend on the back porch. It is a very easy read, and the topic is neat. I really enjoyed the part on quorum sensing, totally fascinating. Thanks for a great book! I went to the library and checked out 3 more by Dr. Bonner.

Good, but not great book

I found this book to be relatively interesting. It reads a bit like an academic trying to write a popular book: it is readable, but I sense a struggle to write in an unaccustomed genre. I thought Cats' Paws and Catapults: Mechanical Worlds of Nature and People was a better book, although more general in scope.

Big Ideas in a Small Book About Sizes

It must be true that size is important; I can count on regularly getting e-mails that tell me I ought to be dissatisfied with my current size and that offer me just the potion to improve it. That's not the big issue in _Why Size Matters: From Bacteria to Blue Whales_ (Princeton University Press) by John Tyler Bonner. "No one can escape the universal rules imposed by size," Bonner writes in the preface. Or, "To put it another way, size is a supreme regulator of all matters biological." There are aspects of size here that are surprising, and all the more so for most of them being in plain sight for any of us to have come up with. Bonner is a biology professor emeritus, who has concentrated his career on smaller animals ("I have devoted my life to slime molds," begins one of his other books) but takes up the problems and potentials of scale for plants and animals of all sizes, even imaginary ones. Bonner does not mention science fiction movies which have as staples terrifying oversized creatures; his fictional examples are residents of the lands visited by Lemuel Gulliver, both the Lilliputians, one twelfth of Gulliver's "normal" height, and Brobdingnagians, twelve times his height. He repeatedly shows that if these were real biological creatures, just because of size difference, they would have different skeletons, different intellects, different voices, different metabolisms, and different lengths of life. Size would make those creatures different in many ways that mere inches could not measure. Bonner may draw many of his examples from Swift's fantasy, but his observations are all drawn from physics and biology. Increasing an animal's size always increases its complexity. Not only is this true from one species to the next, but since we all start out as simple singular cells, it holds true through the development until adult size is attained. Our gastrointestinal, cardiac, neurological, and other systems are more complicated than those of animals smaller than we, not because we are the exalted lords of creation, not because our big frames need more stuff to fill them, but simply because we are the size we are. As Bonner says, size rules all. Size considerations even answer the question of why animals evolved from tiny unicellular creatures into us and into whales and sequoias. There are equations and logarithmic graphs within these pages, but Bonner's tone is never pedantic. He may frequently invoke Gulliver (or Tom Thumb and even Sinbad the Sailor), but the lessons are drawn from real animals, like Bonner's beloved slime molds, or geckos, bats, or fairy flies (actually tiny wasps with feathery wings), or ourselves. _Why Size Matters_ is itself a small book, but it is freighted with important scientific ideas brought forth with admirable clarity and good humor.

Dee Bigger Dee Better

John Tyler Bonner is an Emeritus Professor of Biology at Princeton University. This present general consideration of the importance of 'size' in overall evolutionary development comes after years of close observation and study of cellular processes. For Bonner the complexity of an organism is measured by the number and kinds, the overall variety of cells which comprise it. Very simply , organisms of smaller size cannot have systems of operation of a kind that larger ones can. As he understands it 'size matters' and is a prime determinant of the shape and structure of the organism. This is his summary of the main theme of this work. " Changes in size are not a consequence of changes in shape, but the reverse: changes in size often require changes in shape. To put it another way, size is a supreme regulator of all matters biological. No living entity can evolve or develop without taking size into consideration. Much more than that, size is a prime mover in evolution.There is abundant evidence for the natural selection of size, for both increases and decreases.Those size changes have the remarkable effect that they guide and encourage novelties in the structure of all organisms. Size is not just a by-product of evolution, but a major player. Size increase requires changes in structure, in function, and, as we will see, in other familiar evolutionary innovations. It requires them because they are needed for the individual to exist. Life would be impossible without the appropriate size-related modifications." Bonner goes on to explain why 'size' has been neglected as a subject of biological study. He gives general principles which indicate the overall importance of size. He in this regard says that Strength is dependent on Size, that complex functions such as metabolism, speed of mobility, longevity and growth depend on size. He also says that the division of labor ( the complexity of an organism) is a variable of its size. Also he indicates that the surfaces which enable diffusion of food , oxygen and heat in and out of the body vary with size. Bonner provides entertaining and interesting illustrations and examples. One has the pleasure of reading a book in which one feels an immense amount of learning and understanding is condensed into a relatively small number of pages. While his general line seems to be 'bigger is better' rather than 'small is beautiful' this work would seem to fit into the latter category.

Small Book; Big Thoughts

Size matters. It determines what any organism can do. Yet, size is relegated to the sidelines of scientific study. It is usually studied only as a corollary of another variable - speed, longevity or metabolism. John Tyler Bonner, a retired Princeton biology professor, changes that. By examining stories from "Alice in Wonderland" to "Gulliver's Travels" grants size its scientific due. In this well-written and easily-understood book, Bonner spans the giants and dwarfs of the human, animal and plant kingdoms. He explores the physics of size in biology, its evolution and its role in the function and longevity of living things. Size rules all things: strength, surface, complexity, living processes and abundance. No endeavor escapes its tentacles. It is a small wonder that Bonner addresses his subject in as lucid and conversant manner as he does in this small, but pointed and thought-provoking book.