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This paper investigates the role of size in biological organisms. Morespecifically, how the energy demand, expressed by the metabolic rate, changesaccording to the mass of an organism. Empirical evidence suggests a power-lawrelation between mass and metabolic rate, namely allometric law. For vascularorganisms, the exponent $\beta$ of this power-law is smaller than one, whichimplies scaling economy; that is, the greater the organism is, the lesserenergy per cell it demands. However, the numerical value of this exponent is atheme of an extensive debate and a central issue in comparative physiology. Itis presented in this work some empirical data and a detailed discussion aboutthe most successful theories to explain these issues. A historical perspectiveis also shown, beginning with the first empirical insights in the sec. 19 aboutscaling properties in biology, passing through the two more important theoriesthat explain the scaling properties quantitatively. Firstly, the Rubner model,that consider organism surface area and heat dissipation to derive $\beta =2/3$. Secondly, the West-Brown-Enquist theory, that explains such scalingproperties as a consequence of the hierarchical and fractal nutrientdistribution network, deriving $\beta = 3/4$.

A Gentle Introduction to Scaling Laws in Biological Systems