Missing Laws? We, as living organisms, are part of the Universe, and the material of which our bodies are made was produced at the time of the "Big Bang" or later within stars throughout the Universe. The abstract definition of Life is still a subject for debate, but most of us recognise easily what objects around us we consider as living things. Many of the laws of nature underlying the functioning of these living things are understood. Biological processes originate from chemical reactions, that are in turn ruled by the fundamental laws of physics. The latter have been established by studying small amounts of matter in controlled conditions, for example in particle accelerators. There is no evidence that any new fundamental laws are needed to explain the origin of life. Rather, most scientists think that the complicated properties of objects that contain large numbers of fundamental particles, such as living things, are explicable as emergent behaviours that arise when many such particles are combined.