Dr. Lloyd Demetrius
Department of Organismic and Evolutionary Biology
Harvard university
Cambridge, MA

Thursday, November 9, 2006
2:30 pm (CT)
3269 Beckman Institute

Abstract

The empirical scaling rules relating metabolic rate are described in terms of both scaling exponent and proportionality constants. This talk integrates the chemiosmotic theory of energy transduction with the methods of quantum statistics to propose a molecular mechanism which explains both the variation in scaling exponents and the taxon - specific differences in proportionality constants. The new model is universal in the sense that it applies to unicellular organisms, plants and animals.