In the beat of a heart : life, energy, and the unity of nature / John Whitfield.

Visionary biologists have advanced a theory that explains how all the living creatures of the world--from the tiny amoeba to the vast rain forest--are constructed, providing a fresh perspective on the essential interconnectivity of living systems. This revolutionary theory explains a variety of phenomena--why a shrew eats its body weight in food each day, why a mammal's heart beats about 1 billion times in its lifetime, why there are no trees as tall as the Eiffel Tower, and why more species live at the Earth's equator than at its poles. By looking at how living things use energy, we can answer these and a myriad of other intriguing questions. This book combines biography, history, science, and nature writing to capture the exciting advances--and the people who are making them--that are triggering a revolution as potentially important to biology as Newton's insights were to physics.--From publisher description.