Gómez Márquez, Jaime José2020-10-272020-10-272020Jaime Gómez-Márquez (2020) What are the principles that govern life?, Communicative & Integrative Biology, 13:1, 97-107, DOI: 10.1080/19420889.2020.1803591http://hdl.handle.net/10347/23457We 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 reformulated 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 ruleseng© 2020 The Author(s). Published by Informa UK Limited, trading as Taylor & Francis Group. This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly citedAtribución 4.0 Internacionalhttp://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/Life rulesVital determinismEvolutionCooperativityReformulated central dogmaEntropy and lifejournal article10.1080/19420889.2020.18035911942-0889open access