Modern science has never clearly defined the life force.
In my big ToE (Theory of Everything) there is a dimension as real as dimension space or dimension time from which life force/consciousness is sourced. There is also a dimension of spirit. Consciousness inveigles space and time to exhibit living beings/things. Without time events do not occur and without space things do not exist, in the terms of how we define reality. There are at least three variable expressions of each dimension, and maybe more.