Scale: The Universal Laws of Growth, Innovation, Sustainability, and the Pace of Life, in Organisms, Cities, Economies, and Companies

by Geoffrey West

This is precisely the rule that many decay processes in the physical world follow. Physicists use the term decay rate, rather than mortality rate, to quantify the decay of radioactive material in which “individual” atoms change their state by emitting particles (alpha, beta, or gamma rays) and “die.”