Preprint Hypothesis Version 1 Preserved in Portico This version is not peer-reviewed

What Are the Principles that Govern Life?

Version 1 : Received: 30 June 2020 / Approved: 3 July 2020 / Online: 3 July 2020 (05:46:25 CEST)

A peer-reviewed article of this Preprint also exists.

Jaime Gómez-Márquez (2020) What are the principles that govern life?, Communicative & Integrative Biology, 13:1, 97-107, DOI: 10.1080/19420889.2020.1803591 Jaime Gómez-Márquez (2020) What are the principles that govern life?, Communicative & Integrative Biology, 13:1, 97-107, DOI: 10.1080/19420889.2020.1803591

Abstract

We know that living matter must behave in accordance with the universal laws of physics and chemistry. However, these laws are insufficient to explain the specific characteristics of the vital phenomenon and, therefore, we need new principles, intrinsic to biology, which are the basis for developing a theoretical framework for understanding life. Here I propose what I call the seven commandments of life (the Vital Order, the Principle of Inexorability, the Central Dogma, the Tyranny of Time, the Evolutionary Imperative, the Conservative Rule, the Cooperating Thrust) as a set of principles that help us explain the vital phenomenon from an evolutionary perspective. In a metaphorical way, we can consider life like an endless race in which living beings are the runners, who are changing as the race goes on (the evolutionary process), and the commandments the rules.

Keywords

life rules; vital determinism; evolution; cooperativity; central dogma

Subject

Biology and Life Sciences, Biology and Biotechnology

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