SCALING AND UNIVERSALITY IN ANIMATE AND INANIMATE SYSTEMS

We illustrate the general principle that in biophysics, econophysics a nd possibly even city growth, the conceptual framework provided by sca ling and universality may be of use in making sense of complex statist ical data. Specifically, we discuss recent work on DNA sequences, hear tbeat intervals, avalanche-like lung inflation, urban growth, and comp any growth. Although our main focus is on data, we also discuss statis tical mechanical models.