Water and Life The Unique Properties of H20

Grouped in five broad parts, this collection examines the arguments of Lawrence J. Henderson and other scholars on the "fitness" of water for life as part of the physical and chemical properties of nature considered as a foundational environment within which life has emerged and evolved. Leading authorities delve into a range of themes and questions that span key areas of ongoing debate and uncertainty. They draw from the fields of chemistry, biology, biochemistry, planetary and earth sciences, physics, astronomy, and their subspecialties. Several chapters also deal with humanistic disciplines, such as the history of science and theology, to provide additional perspectives.
Bringing together highly esteemed researchers from multidisciplinary fields, this volume addresses fundamental questions relating to the possible role of water in the origin of life in the cosmos. It supports readers in their own explorations of the origin and meaning of life and the role of water in maintaining life.
Review
"In the present volume, you will find a much deeper probing, often with the powerful tools of quantum mechanics, of the subtle and sometimes unexpected features of the water molecule in its various states. ... You will find here a group of counterfactual studies, where the chemists have picked up the challenge of the cosmologists to imagine other universes where certain physical constants are different. (Of particular interest is the strength of the hydrogen bond, with its implications not only for the physical behavior of water, but for the zipping or unzipping of the nucleic acid links in the strands of genetic DNA.) Toward the end of the book, a more philosophical approach to these pursuits is taken, searching for possible implications to the 'big questions' and asking whether anything from the biochemical laboratories hints at an answer about the purposefulness of the universe. Perhaps not unexpectedly, the answers are ambiguous, and the search goes on."
-From the Foreword by Owen Gingerich, professor emeritus of astronomy and the history of science, Harvard University, and senior astronomer emeritus, Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory, Cambridge, Massachusetts, USA


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