Metabolic cascades of energy

Abstract

Life has a special status, it even has its own science: biology. In many ways, the logic of life seems to differ from that of atoms, molecules, planets, or any other `inanimate object'. However, life is increasingly measured using quantities shared by all sciences, like mass, force, energy or power. An analysis of the dimensions of these quantities provides powerful ways to infer the relationships they might have with one another. Here we show that a dimensional analysis of the metabolic laws connecting the characteristic powers and masses of living organisms offers new ways to understand the deep connections between the chemistry of microscopic molecules and the physics of macroscopic objects bound by gravity. This analysis reveals a link between metabolism and the cascades of energy observed in turbulent flows, opening new perspectives for both fields.