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Life on the Edge offers a completely
new and revealing perspective on the phenomenon of life.
It describes life on Earth -- not by the rules, but by the
exceptions to them.
Which degrees of high or low temperature,
pressure, or salt concentration can be tolerated by living
cells? Can life exist in the antarctic ice, in the deep
subsurface, in dilute sulfuric acid, in hot springs, or
even on Mars? Scientists have obtained surprising answers
to these questions in recent years. Single-cell creatures
perfectly adapted to the specific stress conditions characteristic
of their environment tolerate extremities which one would
have considered incompatible with life just one or two decades
ago. These creatures thrive at temperatures above the boiling
point or below freezing, or at a thousand times atmospheric
pressure. This book describes the most hostile habitats
of our environment and their most hardened inhabitants.
The survival strategies which these so-called extremophiles
have developed are analyzed in a way accessible to the lay
reader but still in touch with the latest research news,
including for instance, research on heat-shock proteins
and genome sequencing.
Michael Gross describes the significance
of extremophiles and extreme conditions for biotechnology,
medicine, and research into the origin and early evolution
of life. Finally, the book takes us into space to explore
the possibility of life on other planets including Mars,
and the search for habitable planets in other solar systems.
Dr. Michael Gross has studied various
aspects of life under extreme conditions throughout his
research career. Both his diploma and doctoral theses dealt
with biochemical aspects of adaptation to high hydrostatic
pressures. During a postdoctoral appointment at the Oxford
Centre for Molecular Sciences, he investigated the function
of the heat-stock protein GroEL. Currently a BBSRC David
Phillips Research Fellow at Oxford University, he is setting
up a research project concerned with protein folding, including
model proteins connected with cold adaptation. Dr. Gross
currently resides in Oxford.
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