A Matter Of Scale

Read this book and help create a better future Climate change affects us all. The manner in which we generate power globally—predominately burning high-carbon fuels—releases carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases, worsening climate change, and we must do something to change that. In A Matter of Scale, Preston Urka untangles the scope of electricity consumption on our planet, the technology choices, society's need for power, and most importantly the vast scale of electricity generation. This book will give you the tools you need to help you understand low-carbon possibilities and the solutions society must adopt—solutions you must advocate for—to achieve a clean energy future.

Welcome to Willow Falls, where dimension-tripping werewolves, angels popping through walls, and a teleporting cat are all part of an average day. Not that Cass buys into any of that nonsense. But, when dragons, actual dragons, sneak into her back yard at night to make a mess of her trash bins, she finds it impossible to ignore. Not knowing what to do, Cass turns to her eccentric new neighbor Charlie for help. Together the two, along with a ragtag group of oddballs, strive to discover more about these creatures. Where did they come from? How did they end up in the woods behind her house? And how does the teleporting cat fit into all of this? Cass must wrap her mind around a new reality of superscience, parallel worlds and time travel in order to keep her scaly new friends safe from the shadowy corporation bent on exploiting them and possibly all of Willow Falls.

A pioneering call for a new understanding of scale across the humanities How is it possible that you are—simultaneously—cells, atoms, a body, quarks, a component in an ecological network, a moment in the thermodynamic dispersal of the sun, and an element in the gravitational whirl of galaxies? In this way, we routinely transform reality into things already outside of direct human experience, things we hardly comprehend even as we speak of DNA, climate effects, toxic molecules, and viruses. How do we find ourselves with these disorienting layers of scale? Enter Scale Theory, which provides a foundational theory of scale that explains how scale works, the parameters of scalar thinking, and how scale refigures reality—that teaches us how to think in terms of scale, no matter where our interests may lie. Joshua DiCaglio takes us on a fascinating journey through six thought experiments that provide clarifying yet provocative definitions for scale and new ways of thinking about classic concepts ranging from unity to identity. Because our worldviews and philosophies are largely built on nonscalar experience, he then takes us slowly through the ways scale challenges and reconfigures objects, subjects, and relations. Scale Theory is, in a sense, nondisciplinary—weaving together a dizzying array of sciences (from nanoscience to ecology) with discussions from the humanities (from philosophy to rhetoric). In the process, a curious pattern emerges: attempts to face the significance of scale inevitably enter terrain closer to mysticism than science. Rather than dismiss this connection, DiCaglio examines the reasons for it, redefining mysticism in terms of scale and integrating contemplative philosophies into the discussion. The result is a powerful account of the implications and challenges of scale, attuned to the way scale transforms both reality and ourselves.

"This is science writing as wonder and as inspiration." —The Wall Street Journal Wall Street Journal From one of the most influential scientists of our time, a dazzling exploration of the hidden laws that govern the life cycle of everything from plants and animals to the cities we live in. Visionary physicist Geoffrey West is a pioneer in the field of complexity science, the science of emergent systems and networks. The term “complexity” can be misleading, however, because what makes West’s discoveries so beautiful is that he has found an underlying simplicity that unites the seemingly complex and diverse phenomena of living systems, including our bodies, our cities and our businesses. Fascinated by aging and mortality, West applied the rigor of a physicist to the biological question of why we live as long as we do and no longer. The result was astonishing, and changed science: West found that despite the riotous diversity in mammals, they are all, to a large degree, scaled versions of each other. If you know the size of a mammal, you can use scaling laws to learn everything from how much food it eats per day, what its heart-rate is, how long it will take to mature, its lifespan, and so on. Furthermore, the efficiency of the mammal’s circulatory systems scales up precisely based on weight: if you compare a mouse, a human and an elephant on a logarithmic graph, you find with every doubling of average weight, a species gets 25% more efficient—and lives 25% longer. Fundamentally, he has proven, the issue has to do with the fractal geometry of the networks that supply energy and remove waste from the organism’s body. West’s work has been game-changing for biologists, but then he made the even bolder move of exploring his work’s applicability. Cities, too, are constellations of networks and laws of scalability relate with eerie precision to them. Recently, West has applied his revolutionary work to the business world. This investigation has led to powerful insights into why some companies thrive while others fail. The implications of these discoveries are far-reaching, and are just beginning to be explored. Scale is a thrilling scientific adventure story about the elemental natural laws that bind us together in simple but profound ways. Through the brilliant mind of Geoffrey West, we can envision how cities, companies and biological life alike are dancing to the same simple, powerful tune.

Published as a sequel to Sheila Hicks: Apprentissages (2017), this new book by the artist (born 1934) gathers recent monumental and architectural-based projects. It emphasizes Hicks' relationship to the sites in which she intervenes and her way of playing with scale and site-specificity. Among the outdoor and indoor projects featured in the publication are Foray into Chromatic Zones (Hayward Gallery, London, 2015); Escalade Beyond Chromatic Lands (57th Venice Biennale, Venice, 2017); and Hop, Skip, Jump, and Fly. Escape from Gravity (High Line, New York, 2017-18). Sheila Hicks: A Matter of Scale places a particular focus on Lifelines, Hicks' recent retrospective held at the Centre Pompidou, which is treated here as a case study for the artist's broader practice.

In a glorious exploration of the comics medium with echoes of 2001: A Space Odyssey, Flash Gordon, Chris Ware, and Moebius, a lone astronaut leaves a world ravaged by nuclear war in search of life. What she finds is beyond all explanation.

Welcome to Willow Falls, where dimension-tripping werewolves, angels popping through walls, and a teleporting cat are all part of an average day. Not that Cass buys into any of that nonsense. But, when dragons, actual dragons, sneak into her back yard at night to make a mess of her trash bins, she finds it impossible to ignore. Not knowing what to do, Cass turns to her eccentric new neighbor Charlie for help. Together the two, along with a ragtag group of oddballs, strive to discover more about these creatures. Where did they come from? How did they end up in the woods behind her house? And how does the teleporting cat fit into all of this? Cass must wrap her mind around a new reality of superscience, parallel worlds and time travel in order to keep her scaly new friends safe from the shadowy corporation bent on exploiting them and possibly all of Willow Falls.