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Perspectives on Neuroscience

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Published on: July 31, 2007

What are the principles that govern life?

Jaime Gómez-Márquez¹

¹Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, Faculty of Biology - CIBUS, University of Santiago de Compostela, Galicia, Spain.

Communicative & Integrative Biology

|October 5, 2020

Summary

Life requires new biological principles beyond physics and chemistry. This study proposes seven "commandments of life" to explain biological phenomena from an evolutionary viewpoint.

Keywords:

Life rules cooperativity entropy and life evolution reformulated central dogma vital determinism

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Area of Science:

Theoretical Biology
Evolutionary Biology
Biophysics

Background:

Universal laws of physics and chemistry govern living matter.
These laws alone are insufficient to explain the unique characteristics of life.
A theoretical framework for understanding life necessitates intrinsic biological principles.

Purpose of the Study:

To propose a set of principles for a theoretical framework of life.
To explain the vital phenomenon from an evolutionary perspective.
To introduce the 'seven commandments of life'.

Main Methods:

Conceptual framework development.
Identification of core biological principles.
Metaphorical representation of life as an evolutionary race.

Main Results:

Proposal of the seven commandments of life: Vital Order, Principle of Inexorability, reformulated Central Dogma, Tyranny of Time, Evolutionary Imperative, Conservative Rule, and Cooperating Thrust.
These principles offer a new perspective on understanding life's characteristics.
The commandments provide rules for the evolutionary process.

Conclusions:

The seven commandments of life offer a foundational set of principles for a theoretical biology.
Understanding life requires principles intrinsic to biology, viewed through an evolutionary lens.
Life's complexity can be better explained by these proposed biological rules.