>From Scaling and Invariants in Cardiovascular Biology John K-J.Li: "the total number of heart beats in a mammal's lifetime is invariant."
Since we had the discussion of beatless heart pumps and because I have nobody local to argue with about these things, I thought I'd ask y'all. A friend of mine reminded me of this (seemingly false to me) invariant the other day while discussing the life expectancy of the new kitten they adopted. My question is whether or not it's believable given the large variance and lack of data in such measures. And although I reluctantly accept the scaling relationship between basal metabolic rate and mass, it seems pretty questionable to claim that BRM is a linear composition. Does anyone have any cites validating or refuting that mammals, across scales, have the same number of heart beats over their lifetime? Am I just being stubborn? -- glen e. p. ropella, 971-222-9095, http://tempusdictum.com ============================================================ FRIAM Applied Complexity Group listserv Meets Fridays 9a-11:30 at cafe at St. John's College lectures, archives, unsubscribe, maps at http://www.friam.org
