On Being the Right Size
E725888
"On Being the Right Size" is a classic 1926 essay by J. B. S. Haldane that explores how physical size fundamentally shapes the biology, capabilities, and limitations of living organisms.
All labels observed (1)
| Label | Occurrences |
|---|---|
| On Being the Right Size canonical | 2 |
How this entity was disambiguated
This entity first appeared as the object of triple T8321258 — resolving that mention is where its identity was fixed. The disambiguator weighed these candidate entities and picked the highlighted one (or “None”, minting a new entity). This is how homonymy is resolved: the same surface form can point to different entities.
NED1
Entity disambiguation (via context triple)
gpt-5-mini-2025-08-07
Target entity: On Being the Right Size Context triple: [Possible Worlds and Other Essays, hasPart, On Being the Right Size]
-
A.
Essays of a Biologist
Essays of a Biologist is a collection of influential essays by evolutionary biologist Julian Huxley that explores biology’s implications for human society, philosophy, and the modern worldview.
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B.
The Life of Mammals
The Life of Mammals is a landmark BBC nature documentary series presented by David Attenborough that explores the evolution, diversity, and behavior of mammal species around the world.
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C.
The Physiology of Common Life
The Physiology of Common Life is a 19th-century popular science book by George Henry Lewes that explains human physiological processes in accessible, everyday terms.
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D.
A First Lesson in Natural History
A First Lesson in Natural History is a 19th-century introductory science book that presents basic concepts of natural history in an accessible, educational format for young readers.
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E.
Cope’s rule in evolutionary biology
Cope’s rule in evolutionary biology is the hypothesis that animal lineages tend to evolve toward larger body sizes over geological time.
- F. None of above. chosen
- G. Unsure - the case is ambiguous/there is not enough information to decide.
NED2
Entity disambiguation (via description)
gpt-5-mini-2025-08-07
Target entity: On Being the Right Size Target entity description: "On Being the Right Size" is a classic 1926 essay by J. B. S. Haldane that explores how physical size fundamentally shapes the biology, capabilities, and limitations of living organisms.
-
A.
Essays of a Biologist
Essays of a Biologist is a collection of influential essays by evolutionary biologist Julian Huxley that explores biology’s implications for human society, philosophy, and the modern worldview.
-
B.
The Life of Mammals
The Life of Mammals is a landmark BBC nature documentary series presented by David Attenborough that explores the evolution, diversity, and behavior of mammal species around the world.
-
C.
The Physiology of Common Life
The Physiology of Common Life is a 19th-century popular science book by George Henry Lewes that explains human physiological processes in accessible, everyday terms.
-
D.
A First Lesson in Natural History
A First Lesson in Natural History is a 19th-century introductory science book that presents basic concepts of natural history in an accessible, educational format for young readers.
-
E.
Cope’s rule in evolutionary biology
Cope’s rule in evolutionary biology is the hypothesis that animal lineages tend to evolve toward larger body sizes over geological time.
- F. None of above. chosen
Statements (46)
| Predicate | Object |
|---|---|
| instanceOf |
essay
ⓘ
scientific essay ⓘ |
| addresses |
why organisms of different sizes have different structures
ⓘ
why similar shapes cannot simply be scaled up or down indefinitely ⓘ |
| author |
J. B. S. Haldane
NERFINISHED
ⓘ
John Burdon Sanderson Haldane NERFINISHED ⓘ |
| containsExample |
comparison of insects and mammals
ⓘ
discussion of why insects cannot be gigantic ⓘ discussion of why large animals need thicker limbs ⓘ |
| countryOfOrigin | United Kingdom ⓘ |
| discusses |
constraints of size on animal structure
ⓘ
implications of size for behavior ⓘ implications of size for morphology ⓘ implications of size for physiology ⓘ limitations on flying animals ⓘ relationship between size and metabolism ⓘ respiratory constraints in small and large animals ⓘ scaling of strength with size ⓘ surface area to volume ratio ⓘ |
| explains |
how geometry affects biological design
ⓘ
how physical laws constrain living forms ⓘ |
| field |
biology
ⓘ
biophysics ⓘ evolutionary biology ⓘ |
| genre | popular science ⓘ |
| hasLegacy |
frequently cited in discussions of scaling in biology
ⓘ
used in teaching evolutionary and comparative physiology ⓘ |
| hasNotableQuote |
For every type of animal there is a most convenient size, and a large change in size inevitably carries with it a change of form.
ⓘ
You can drop a mouse down a thousand-yard mine shaft; and, on arriving at the bottom, it gets a slight shock and walks away. ⓘ |
| hasReprint |
On Being the Right Size and Other Essays
NERFINISHED
ⓘ
collections of Haldane’s essays ⓘ |
| influenced |
conceptual development of allometric scaling
ⓘ
later work on scaling laws in biology ⓘ |
| language | English ⓘ |
| mainTopic |
allometry
ⓘ
biological scaling ⓘ effects of body size on biology ⓘ relationship between size and function in organisms ⓘ |
| notableFor |
clear explanation of scaling principles
ⓘ
early articulation of size-related constraints in biology ⓘ influence on public understanding of biological scaling ⓘ |
| originallyPublishedIn | a popular science context ⓘ |
| perspective | Darwinian evolutionary framework ⓘ |
| publicationYear | 1926 ⓘ |
| targetAudience |
general educated readers
ⓘ
students of biology ⓘ |
How these facts were elicited
The pipeline generated the facts above by prompting gpt-5.1 with this entity's name + description and the instruction below.
Instruction
You are a knowledge base construction expert. Given a subject entity and a description of it, return factual statements that you know for the subject as a JSON list of dictionaries(triples), where keys must be "subject", "predicate" and "object". The number of facts may be very high, between 25 to 50 or more, for very popular subjects. For less popular subjects, the number of facts can be very low, like 5 or 10. # Requirements - If you don't know the subject at all, return an empty list. - If the subject is not a named entity, return an empty list. - Include at least one triple where predicate is "instanceOf". - Do not get too wordy. - Separate several objects into multiple triples with one object.
Input
Subject: On Being the Right Size Description of subject: "On Being the Right Size" is a classic 1926 essay by J. B. S. Haldane that explores how physical size fundamentally shapes the biology, capabilities, and limitations of living organisms.
Referenced by (2)
Full triples — surface form annotated when it differs from this entity's canonical label.