Metabolic Scaling — Kleiber's Law

B ∝ M3/4 — Why do metabolic rates scale with the ¾ power of body mass?
Kleiber's Law (1932): Metabolic rate B = a·Mβ with β ≈ 0.75 across 27 orders of magnitude of body mass.
B = a · M3/4  (watts, kg)
West-Brown-Enquist (1997): β = 3/4 emerges from fractal vascular networks minimizing delivery cost. Specific metabolic rate B/M ∝ M−1/4: larger animals have slower cell-level metabolism. Heart rate ∝ M−1/4, lifespan ∝ M1/4 → heartbeats per lifetime ≈ constant ~1.5 billion. Current: B = W, specific = W/kg