Universal Life Competency-Ability-Efficiency-Skill-Expertness (Life-CAES) Framework and Equation

Abstract

Living systems demonstrate substantial variability in growth, reproduction, productivity, resilience, and survival, even when exposed to broadly similar environmental resource inputs. Classical biological models attribute such variability to domain-specific mechanisms—such as metabolic rate, nutrient uptake efficiency, genetic potential, and hormonal regulation—but no existing framework quantitatively integrates these mechanisms into a unified cross-kingdom performance model. This study introduces the Universal Life Competency–Ability–Efficiency–Skill–Expertness (Life-CAES) framework as a systems-biology formulation that explains biological performance as the coupled outcome of resource acquisition and biochemical conversion efficiency. Grounded in mass conservation principles, rate-limited physiological processes, biochemical competency, and absorption capacity, the Life-CAES equation defines performance as a function of organismal mass, uptake velocity, absorption capacity, internal conversion efficiency, and time-dependent mass assimilation. The framework is biologically conservative and dimensionally interpretable, and it provides an empirically testable basis for cross-species comparison of growth and productivity. The model is applicable to plants, animals, humans, fish, insects, microorganisms, and other living systems, offering a unifying conceptual and mathematical tool for interpreting why organisms with similar external inputs can exhibit remarkably different biological outcomes. As such, the Life-CAES framework presents a novel step toward predictive, integrative, and comparable biological performance modeling across diverse life forms.