Why Size Matters

Reviews / Votes

"Bonner argues that size is a driving force for all of biology. . . . He demonstrates convincingly, size dictates everything from an animal's shape and appearance to its locomotion, speed, voice and social organization."---Wray Herbert, Washington Post Book World "A masterful and engaging work, elegant in its simplicity despite its subject's complexity."---Susan Lumpkin, Zoogoer "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.' . . . 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." * Choice * "An original and very interesting book."---Michel Cuisin, Mammalia "Bonner has written a book in a friendly voice that enlarges the picture of how everyone, big and small, thinks of size and why it matters very much." * Biology Digest * "[Bonner] examines the largest and smallest creatures on Earth. Size, asserts Bonner, determines five important biological features: strength, surface area, complexity, rate of metabolism, and organism abundance. In this diminutive book, he explains each feature and how it relates to the others. He concludes, size matters." * Science News * "The important point made by Bonner . . . is that differences in magnitude affect biological and physical properties directly, exposing the organisms to the action of different selection pressures. . . . Why Size Matters will be of major interest for readers from different disciplines, just as the topic and the principles discussed by Bonner apply to diverse scientific areas."---Andre J. Riveros, TRENDS in Ecology and Evolution