I have an interest that I’d really like to develop more on how physical processes influence the selection pressures on individuals. That is, how does our understanding of the physics of for example heat transfer, or stress-strain properties of materials help us to understand the diversity of organisms we find around us. I am particularly interested on what factors limit maximal organismal size across different animal groups. Linked to this, I’m interested in how organism size influences how much energy can be gathered and how it is spent. The person who listens most patiently to my ideas on this is Stuart Humphries in Hull, although Dave Wilkinson is increasingly sharing the load.
Some prepresentative papers:
Ruxton 2011 Why are whales big? Nature 469, 481